The Harm Prevention Agency says gambling will be normalized if children are allowed to buy Lotto tickets

The law is set to change to ban the sale of all Lotto products in stationary and online stores to persons under 18 years of age.
Photo: King of RNZ/Asia

The Problem Gambling Foundation says children should never be allowed to buy gambling products… not even for their parents.

Currently, Instant Kiwi tickets are the only Lotto products subject to age restrictions, but legislation will be introduced in Parliament later this year to ban the sale of all Lotto products – in stores and online – to under 18s.

Lotto welcomed the change, and its spokesman Will Hine said there was no exact figure on the number of people under 18 buying products, but the numbers were believed to be very low.

Andree Froude, spokeswoman for the Problem Gambling Foundation and director of public health, said it was “astonishing” that children under 18 were able to buy Lotto tickets until now, and many people were unaware this was the case.

Even if a young person bought a Lotto ticket for their parents, it normalizes the behavior, she said.

“It actually normalizes gambling and makes it seem to them that there is no risk involved and that it is just a normal, everyday activity, so that is really important and sends the message that these are gambling products and that Children shouldn’t be able to buy them.”

Research on adults in New Zealand has shown that gambling before the age of 13 is a risk factor for harmful gambling throughout life, she added.

She believes young people are exposed to much more gambling advertising than in the past.

“It’s really, really important that we make young people aware that gambling involves risks, whatever those are.”

She added that gambling is constantly evolving with the development of online gambling and games containing gambling elements.

“We are certainly seeing more and more young people engaging in gambling and being targeted by advertising again… that is certainly concerning.”

In her opinion, the Internet space is the cause of some of the problems related to gambling and young people.

“They’re on social media, they’re very tech-savvy, they really are games and other things like loot boxes which contain elements of gambling, are very similar to gambling and require you to use the loot box to spend real money to have a chance to win something they may want to use in the game. All this exposes them to gambling.”

The online environment was available 24/7 and online gambling became normal for young people, she said.

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