Starting this December, changes in the laws that govern lottery payouts will go in to effect in the United Kingdom. This was announced Monday by Camelot, the operators of the United Kingdom’s national lottery.
The main rule change that lottery players will notice is that Camelot will no longer be paying out winnings to lottery winners who have purchased their tickets from a location outside of the United Kingdom. This can currently be done by lottery players who purchase his or her tickets over the Internet. Camelot’s current rules allow players to use the National Lottery website to purchase lottery tickets, and they therefore can do this from anywhere in the world. Starting December 13, 2010, the National Lottery website will ban purchases from overseas.
Camelot has said the rule change is being made because the company does not want to risk violating local gambling laws in the country from which the online purchase was made.
“The general rule of thumb is that if any overseas country has its own lottery, playing the UK one will be illegal,” said a Camelot spokesperson. “The change is to make it absolutely clear to players they must be in the UK or the Isle of Man.”
The United Kingdom’s national lottery is never advertised or promoted outside of the country, a practice many other countries engage in.
“We don’t promote the draw overseas and our license prevents us doing so,” added the Camelot spokesperson. “There are plenty of warnings online at the point of sale.”
Any lottery tickets that were purchased overseas before the rule change goes in to effect on December 13 will still be honored, and winning ticket holders will still be able to receive his or her prize money. However, from December 13 onward, only United Kingdom-based players will be able to obtain their tickets through the National Lottery website.
