Lottoland launch youth gaming awareness programme

Online lottery betting provider Lottoland has launched a new campaign, in collaboration with the Gibraltar Government, aimed at minimising the impact of gambling on young people.

The ‘P.A.R.E.N.T’ programme will act as a support tool for parents, educators and youth representatives while educating, inspiring and empowering young people to stay safe online and strike a balance between the ‘online’ and ‘offline’ environments, the company said.

“Together, we will provide young people today with the resources they need to ensure they are empowered to ‘switch off’ when they need to, and ‘switched on’ enough to enjoy all that online gaming has to offer with the self-awareness required to stay safe and sound at all times,” Nigel Birrell, CEO at Lottoland, said.

The programme, focusing on six key behaviours essential for responsible gaming: Parent, Awareness, Responsibility, Environment, Nurture and Trust, will be delivered by the Young Gamblers Education Trust (YGET), to primary and secondary teachers in early 2019, subject to further conversation with Government education officials.

Evidence from programmes rolled out in Gibraltar will then also be used to launch PARENT in other countries through the European Lotto Betting Association, of which Lottoland is a founding member.

Some of the results that emerged from research conducted by OnePoll, and used to shape the programme, include:

Almost half the nation’s children enjoy unlimited time online each day – and 1 in 5 have access to online games without any restrictions in place at all.

Children’s online gaming habits cost the average UK parent GBP31 in charges – a third of whom are unaware of the costs due by them until it is time to pay.

Almost one in five (18 percent) of parents with children aged 7-16 in the UK do not know you can play games with other users live over the internet.

More than a quarter of UK parents with children aged 16 or younger admit to knowing ‘none’, ‘very few’ or only ‘some’ of their online friends.

Half of all UK youngsters spend up to four hours a day online in the school holidays – and almost twice the amount of time on average that they do in term time.

“This launch is timely during Responsible Gambling Week and we are looking forward to working with Lottoland and the Department for Education to create awareness year round and take this important campaign to other jurisdictions,” Lee Willows, Chief Executive, YGEM said.

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