Allwyn has launched chocolate-scented scratch-and-sniff National Lottery cards in 12,000 stores in an attempt to boost flatlining sales, though some retailers have expressed fears of irresponsible retailing and increasing players’ gambling addictions.
Costing £5 each, the ‘£500 Selection’ Scratchcards were launched by Allwyn-owned National Lottery, with an eventual aim of the cards being sold in 30,000 retail outlets.
However, Susan Connolly, of Connolly Spar Pewsey, Tidworth, said the move is “completely and utterly irresponsible retailing”, and will lead to an increase in children gambling.
“Cadbury’s and Mars don’t advertise for children and now the gambling sector is. The new cards are selling, and you only know they smell of chocolate once you’ve bought it. But once that person has taken it home and a child smells it, it’s a way of enticing them. We all know children like chocolate.”
Connolly added that the move is comparable to vape flavours that appeal to children.
“We have a whole generation of children vaping due to jelly baby-flavoured devices,” she said. “Once we have chocolate-flavoured scratchcards at home, that could be the start of something.”
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Anita Nye, of Premier Eldred Drive Store, Orpington, Kent, is also selling the cards in store, but said she will “not draw attention to the fact they smell like chocolate” and the “gimmick” seems to be “targeting younger people”.
“The whole thing is contradictory,” she said. “They’re saying you’ve got that responsibility to watch people’s gambling and the 10-card purchase limit, even though this means someone can buy 10 scratchcards, can take one step foot outside the shop, walk back in and buy another 10 because it’s only 10 scratchcards in one transaction. But they’re also trying to encourage people to buy a scratchcard, which, in turn, could start a gambling addiction. We’ve been backed into a corner, because we’ll be charged for them either way – so we have to sell them, rightly or wrongly.”
Nye and Connolly both attended a Responsible Retailers roundtable with Allwyn where the new scratchcards were discussed.
Nye said: “One minute [they’re] saying we’ve got to be responsible retailers, and then in the next breath [they’re] telling us we’ve got to increase sales. I put my head in my hands, and told them my head is is buzzing.”
An Allwyn spokesperson said that rigorous controls in place mean “the risk of problem play associated with National Lottery games is very low”.
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“This is backed up by Gambling Commission, Health Survey for England and GamCare data,” they continued. “We design games that are lower risk and don’t appeal to children or vulnerable groups through a meticulous, triple-layer game design process.
“For example, in the case of ‘£500 Selection’, the theme is that of an adult chocolate selection box – with symbols such as cocoa beans, hampers, flowers, mint and vanilla pods. We then use two independent industry-standard tools to assess the risk levels of a game’s structural and situational characteristics, and a risk checklist to identify any further risks posed by the game. If any of these tools identify a risk level which is too high, we will revise the game. If the risk remains too high, we will not launch the game at all.”
Sue Nithyanadan, of Costcutter Epsom, Surrey, has seen an increase in scatchcard sales since putting the new lottery cards out for sale on Saturday 5 October, having been instructed to according to Allwyn’s planogram.
She added she has noticed that scratchcard sales have been “lower” since Allwyn’s takeover of the National Lottery from Camelot.
“People are liking [the scented cards]. It is working [with sales], I think people are curious about scented things,” she continued.
“Someone close to Allwyn told me they introduced this because [the UK] pay for less scratchcards than the rest of Europe – a significant percentage less. It’s a huge market to tap into. There’s a stigma with scratchcards that they’re for a certain demographic, whereas in Europe I think it’s seen as a more fun thing with your coffee or on the bus.”
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