UK national lottery ticket sales hit by cost of living crisis, says Camelot

theguardian.com:

Camelot, the outgoing UK national lottery operator, has warned that players have “tightened their belts” in the face of soaring living costs, as it reported lower sales of tickets and instant win games.

The company, which has launched legal action against the Gambling Commission after losing the lottery’s next licence to the Czech-owned newcomer Allwyn, posted a 3% drop in sales to £8.1bn in the year to 31 March. It said most of that fall was caused by a 7% decline in sales of National Lottery Instants to £3.4bn.

“This was largely down to greater competition for people’s attention and spend after the lifting of Covid restrictions, followed by growing economic uncertainty over the latter part of the year,” Camelot said.

Scratchcard sales remained below pre-pandemic levels. Sales across the 44,500 retailers offering national lottery products fell 4% to £4.7m over the year. Retailers account for nearly 60% of all sales for the group.

Camelot blamed pandemic restrictions in the early part of the year which affected footfall and shopper frequency, but more recently the cost of living crisis, which it said had slowed down the retail recovery as “consumers tightened their belts”.

Draw-based games fared better, though ticket sales dipped slightly to £4.6bn, with fewer large EuroMillions rollovers. There were 15 draws with a jackpot of more than £100m compared with 22 the year before.

With Covid restrictions ending, online sales fell 2.6% to £3.4bn, although this was also due to the introduction of lower online play and wallet limits for potentially at-risk players.

Camelot said £1.9bn was generated for good causes over the year, the second highest total raised.

The Camelot chief executive, Nigel Railton, said in the year ahead the