Hospice Lotteries Association Conference 2025 - Ian Angus speech
18 September 2025
This speech was delivered by director of policy Ian Angus at the Hospice Lotteries Association Conference on 18 September 2025.
Please note: This is the speech as drafted and may slightly differ from the delivered version.
Hello everyone and thank you for that introduction and that welcome. It is great to be able to join you this year at the Hospice Lotteries Association Annual Conference for what I am sure has been a great couple of days of discussion. And as one of the strengths with such events I hope you’ve all had a good chance to get to know some of your peers this week as well.
I’ve travelled from across the Midlands from Wolverhampton to join you today and I wanted to say a few words about Compton Care, who provide specialist palliative care and bereavement support for those living with life limiting conditions in my local area. Wolverhampton – like many other post-industrial towns and cities – is finding it hard going. We’ve lost some major industries, the city centre is struggling, and morale has taken a bit of a hit. But there remain a handful of institutions of which we Wulfrunians are fiercely proud of, and which embody the very best of our city and our people – and Compton Care is one of them.
Everyone in Wolverhampton knows someone who has received care at Compton. It is a wonderful facility with incredible staff and volunteers. I am genuinely in awe of their community and fundraising activities. So, I want to put on record my thanks to everyone at Compton Care – and to you all – for the work you do in supporting some of our most vulnerable people.
And that thanks extends to the commitment in this room to making sure the lotteries you run are safe, fair and crime free and I hope you find what I have to say of use. But what is it I plan to tell you? Well, I want to spend a little time today paying tribute to how the work all of you do in your communities delivers for the public good. How you make things a little easier for all of us, at the moments when we really need that. The money you raise through your lotteries is really important. But linked to that it is of course crucial that you work well with the Commission on how you offer the lotteries that you do. So I will touch on the importance we put on a collaborative relationship based on compliance, with those we regulate. That will take me on to what we have been working on this year, from implementing the Gambling Act Review through to changes that we’ve made to the data you provide to us. And as part of that I will pick out the most important elements for your sector as well. So plenty of ground to cover. But first a bit of context may help. And to do that, let me draw on the Commission’s statistics to tell you what gambling more widely and your sector specifically look like in Great Britain today.
In May we published participation data for September 2024 to January 2025 from our Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB). This data was drawn from a nationally representative sample of 5,191 adults aged 18 and over. And if we look at that these official statistics, we find that participation in all gambling within the last 4 weeks was down from 49 per cent in the last wave of data to 46 per cent. Before I go further I should note that our society lotteries data is for the whole sector and not just Hospice Lotteries. Still, below this headline figure we find that nearly one fifth of respondents - 19 per cent - only took part in lottery draws in the last 4 weeks. That being either National Lottery or other charity lottery draws offered by organisation like you.
And this tracks along if we dig deeper. So, if we look at online gambling or in person gambling, the participation rate splits in a similar way. Online participation drops from 37 per cent to 17 per cent when those who only play lottery draws are removed and in-person participation drops from 28 per cent to 18 per cent when you do the same. None of this is surprising when you consider that the top two most popular gambling activities in the past 4 weeks were lotteries. With the National Lottery draws at 29 per cent and charity or society lottery draws, that all of you represent, second on 15 per cent.
And that ranking has been consistent throughout the data for 2024 and 2025 that we’ve published so far. In third is scratchcards on 12 per cent, something again that some of you in this room will be involved in. For those of you who take an interest in these types of statistics, our next publication of participation data will be the second Annual Report of the Gambling Survey for Great Britain and we will be publishing that early next month. And you will be able to find that, as well as research on the reasons people gamble and the impact it can have, all on our website, as well as plenty more stats like the ones I’ve talked about today.
Data like this, we think, tells a clear story about the health of your sector and of course what a critical job organisations like yours do in terms of raising funds for good causes. This is further underlined when we consider that in our 2023-24 industry statistics, society lottery proceeds exceeded £1 billion for the first time. This represented an increase of 11.9 per cent on the previous year and a 27 per cent increase on the last pre-lockdown period of April 2019 to March 2020. And whilst it’s important to remember that we don’t monitor the totals for smaller society lotteries, all who do great work themselves and some of which are represented in the hall today, it also means that £461.5 million in contributions to good causes were raised.
That’s a huge amount of public good that can be delivered as a result of your work.
And if I may I would like to thank you all, because delivering for good causes is exactly what you all do, year in, year out. Alongside the National Lottery, lotteries like the ones you all run for Hospices up and down the country, raise great sums for good causes. And that benefit is felt across society. A benefit that everyone in this room should be recognised for the part you play. But as you all are aware, there is a terrific responsibility that you are entrusted with. Both to the Hospices you represent and the wider community that is invested in your work. A responsibility and trust that if broken may be very difficult to rebuild.
So not one of us can take the current health of the sector and the public good that comes from it for granted. It is this which makes your relationship with us – the Gambling Commission - so important. We are of course the regulator for all licensed lotteries in Great Britain and so it is part of our role to set the rules for the sector and as far as possible help you stay compliant with them.
I don’t think anyone here would argue that the public needs total confidence in you and the rules that govern your products. You simply wouldn’t be able to continue to play the vital role you do in your community if public trust was lost. And so the rules that maintain fairness and safety, and help protect that trust, need to keep up with the changing world we live in. I will return to our work to keep the regulation of the sector aligned with the needs of today later on. Before that though, I want to underline the importance we at the Commission put in having a collaborative relationship with those we regulate, based on compliance at the earliest opportunity. And this applies to lotteries like yours as much as any other licensee.
I know for many of you, checking in with what people like me at the Commission are saying may not be at the top of your list every week, but if you do occasionally check in with speeches like this or other statements we put out, you will likely have heard us talk about this before. At the Gambling Commission we are serious when we say we want a collaborative relationship with those we regulate, based on supporting compliance at the earliest opportunity. Still, what does that mean in practice?
I’m pleased to say that, in recent years, we’ve not had to use them in relation to lotteries, but the Commission does have far reaching powers, both to update our rules and to take action when those we regulate fail to meet our standards. That said, we know that we can and do get far more done, far more quickly for consumers, when we work with others instead of relying on our powers alone. And we see that collaboration with those we regulate is absolutely part of that.
Happily our Society Lotteries team and the wider Commission is able to work in this way with both the Hospice Lotteries Association and all of you as its members. I’ve just mentioned them but our brilliant Society Lotteries team at the Commission work with you week in, week out, sharing best practice and helping you be compliant whilst raising money for good causes. And it’s a testament to the strong, collaborative relationship we have, that the workshops that Louise, Jo and Claire host each year at this event are so well attended and so productive. They are running the workshops throughout the Conference and I believe you have more opportunities today to join them. These sessions are really important in providing information on recent changes that affect you, to help you to stay compliant. So if you haven’t had chance to do so yet, please do join them later today.
So we work together well on an ongoing basis but we also strive to make sure your voices are heard beyond the every day work as well. A good example of this is how you engaged with our consultations for the Gambling Act Review. Significantly for the society lotteries sector is of course the changes we made to direct marketing, or cross-selling. Originally, we included land-based and lotteries sectors in these changes. But thanks to the significant and well evidenced responses we had from people in this room amongst others, we took the decision not to include land-based gambling and the lottery sectors in scope of this requirement. This is a clear example of positive engagement leading to positive decisions.
Another area where changes benefitted from healthy engagement is our changes to Regulatory Returns that we made last year. Whilst I’m pleased to say that in general, the move over to quarterly from annual reporting has happened smoothly, there remains a couple of areas that we would appreciate your attention on. First, we did see some anomalies earlier this year in reported lottery submissions and regulatory returns. We’ve already addressed these with those who are affected though and I’m pleased to say we have already seen improvements in the quality of the data we hold. However, it has become apparent that some operators are not reporting changes to key personnel. This is important because we can’t make you aware of changes if we don’t have up to date details. It’s also a requirement of a licence to keep this information up to date with the Commission, so if you think your organisation may have an issue, tell one of the team here this week and we can make sure it’s sorted out. I know the team have been going into these issues in detail during the workshops so again, if you’ve not been along yet and this sounds like information you need, you’ve got one more chance after me.
Now, an area we have been working with partners and stakeholders more than ever on, over the last 12 months or so, is combatting illegal gambling. As you would expect, tackling illegal lotteries is an important part of that. And you can see how seriously we take this as well, simply by looking at the priority put upon it in our Corporate Strategy that we published last year. Your reporting, intelligence and support helps us tackle this problem far better than we could without you. We receive hundreds of referrals for potential illegal draws or prize competitions, all of which we review. And if we focus on just one area, during the period 1st January 2025 to 2nd September 2025, we have received 313 reports specifically relating to prize competition websites. Of this 313 we have referred 72 cases to Enforcement for consideration of potentially non-compliant free draws and prize competitions. And be in no doubt that where those investigations uncover illegal or non-compliant activity, we take action.
Hopefully these examples underline how important the relationship between the Commission and all of you is. And going forward that remains essential. This brings me back to the Gambling Act Review and our ongoing work to implement it. And I think it’s worth highlighting some of the more recent announcements that are relevant to the society lotteries sector.
And before I go through the changes the Gambling Commission is responsible for I think it is sensible to start with the most recent change that you will have been contacted about at the start of the month. And that is the Statutory Levy the Government introduced earlier this year. The Levy represents a step change for how funds for research, prevention and treatment of gambling harms will be raised, administered and distributed, with around £100 million a year likely to be raised. It represents an important step in efforts to minimise gambling harms across society. But at the Commission we appreciate there are challenges with the introduction of the Levy. As the body designated to collect the Levy, we published guidance on this process last month. Further to that, those of you here representing Hospice Lotteries should all have received an invoice for the payment of the Levy via your eServices account on 1 September. This is due for payment by 1 October. The invoicing here is totally dependent on the Commission having the correct details for your key people as well, so another reason why updating that information when there are changes is so vital. Whilst it is Government that has driven the Levy forward, I know that at the Commission we are committed to making the transition as smooth as possible for those paying the Levy as well as those who will depend on it to keep on delivering vital services and research. So please do read the guidance we have published and if you have any questions, please get in touch with the team.
Over the Summer the Government also published independent research and stated their position on prize draws. Whilst prize draws are not regulated by the Commission we watch this space closely and as I’ve already mentioned, stand ready to take action against illegal lotteries – including anything badged as a prize draw that in reality is an illegal lottery. The Government stated position is that they intend to introduce a voluntary code for prize draw operators, to help strengthen player protections, increase transparency and improve accountability of those who operate prize draws. The success of the code will be monitored, and this will dictate whether the current Government decides to take further action in this space. At the same time, the Government also published its independent research on society lotteries and announced its intention to maintain the current limits as they are, at this time, to prevent any negative impacts on the National Lottery.
Back to the Commission’s progress this year though. In February we published responses to our second round of Gambling Act Review consultations. These concerned new customer led tools, transparency of protection of customer funds and changes connected with the new statutory levy. The changes around customer led tools means that from next month, we will give consumers more effective ways to manage their gambling by making it easier to set and maintain deposit limits on their online accounts, in ways that work best for them. Changes in this area only require society lotteries that offer high frequency or instant win lotteries to abide by the new rules though so many of you may already be compliant without changes.
On transparency of protection of customer funds, in a similar way to topics I’ve discussed earlier today, we listened to the feedback we received from you on our proposed changes. As a result, we have took the decision again, to only require society lotteries that offer high frequency or instant win lotteries to abide by the new rules in this area. If you offer those products and you have questions about the requirements to advise consumers on the level of protection you have on their funds, ask us sooner rather than later.
Speaking of consultations, you may have seen that last month we launched a consultation to update the LCCP as a result of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, under which accreditation for alternative dispute resolution will move to the Secretary of State at the Department for Business and Trade from 6 April 2026.
The LCCP changes required will only reflect the changes in legislation and won’t extend beyond the legal obligations on licensees. For example, one of the changes is to reflect the removal of our own list of dispute providers from our website and provide updated guidance on this.
Licensees will still need to offer free access to ADR after eight weeks but future providers will be certified through the new regime. The consultation closes on 29 September, so you still have time to respond if you haven't already.
The Gambling Act Review has been and continues to be an important priority for the Commission with plenty going on, so if there is anything I haven’t mentioned that you would like to know more about, please do ask in the Q&A to follow.
Society Lotteries and Hospice Lotteries, alongside the National Lottery, play an incredibly important role in our society. You raise important funds for good causes up and down the country and at the Gambling Commission, we want to make sure you can fulfil that role, whilst compliant with our rules and retaining the confidence of the communities you serve.
Compliance at the earliest opportunity also means we can keep on building the collaborative way of working which I think we have done so well with you in recent years. Good communication in turn, will lead to better outcomes for all of you as lottery operators and for the communities up and down the country who rely on you. So let’s keep going. At the Commission we intend to keep on engaging and providing you with advice and support where you need it. And in turn we need you to continue to meet our standards.
Thank you for having me today and I look forward to your questions.
Last updated: 18 September 2025
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