Diabetes UK Services Ltd has put in place the following procedures to encourage people to gamble responsibly and seek help should gambling become a problem.
The Be Gamble Aware helpline number and website address is included on all tickets and entry forms to lotteries. For support, visit www.begambleaware.org or phone 0808 8020 133, 8am to midnight, seven days a week.
You can request to be self-excluded from Diabetes UK Lottery and Raffle communications and entry into any prize draws if you are struggling to control your gambling.
Self-exclusion means asking to be excluded from gambling promotion for a certain length of time, usually between six and twelve months but can be up to seven years. You can do this by contacting us by one of the following methods:
Once we receive your request, we will take all reasonable steps to stop sending you any information about our lotteries, raffles and prize draws as soon as we can. We will also close your account and return any funds we hold to you.
It is up to you to keep to the self-exclusion agreement but Diabetes UK will do all we reasonably can to help you. You can extend the self-exclusion period at any time for six months or longer. After the end of your self-exclusion period, we will not start sending you promotional material about our lottery, raffle or prize draw products for seven years unless you specifically ask for or agree to accept this material. If you take positive steps to participate in our lottery, raffle or prize draw products during the six month period after the end of your self-exclusion period, we will contact you by telephone and give you a 24 hour cooling-off period. If we breach the self-exclusion period, we are obliged to report it to the Gambling Commission.
Players can also set a limit on the number of books or entries they would like for an individual raffle or lottery and also the number they would like to participate in on an annual basis.
Underage gambling is an offence. To protect children, we operate procedures to exclude those under the age of 16 from entering our lottery or raffle.
Through our membership with The Lotteries Council, Diabetes UK Services Ltd makes a contribution each year to help problem gambling via The Responsible Gambling Trust www.begambleaware.org
Advice for Responsible Gambling
The majority of people do gamble responsibly. It may help you to keep your gambling under control by remembering the following:
- You are buying fun, not investing your money
- Before playing, set strict limits on how much time and money you are going to spend
- Quit while you’re ahead
- Only gamble with money you can afford to lose
- Don’t spend more money on gambling with the hope to win back money that you have lost
- Keep other interests and hobbies – don’t let gambling take over your life
- Don’t gamble in order to escape from stress or boredom
- Gambling in moderation is okay
For some, however, gambling can become a problem. If you are concerned about the amount you are gambling, and feel it is taking over your life (or you are concerned for a friend or relative), then the following questions may help you and give you some guidance.
- Have others criticised your gambling?
- Have you ever lied to cover up the amount you have gambled or time spent doing it?
- Do arguments, frustrations or disappointments make you want to gamble?
- Do you gamble alone for long periods?
- Do you stay away from work or college to gamble?
- Do you gamble to escape from a boring or unhappy life?
- Are you reluctant to spend ‘gambling money’ on anything else?
- Have you lost interest in your family, friends or pastimes due to gambling?
- After losing, do you feel you must try to win back your losses as soon as possible?
- When gambling and you run out of money, do you feel lost and in despair, and need to gamble again as soon as possible?
- Do you gamble until your last penny is gone?
- Have you lied, stolen or borrowed just to get money to gamble or to pay gambling debts?
- Do you feel depressed or even suicidal because of your gambling?
If you feel you are answering ‘yes’ repetitively to the above questions, then it is likely a gambling problem exists.
For friendly, helpful advice from trained counsellors, call the National Gambling Helpline - Freephone 0808 8020 133 8am – Midnight 7 days a week.
Sometimes just telling someone about your problem can be a relief and it is the first step towards dealing with your problem. You can also visit the Be Gamble Aware website www.begambleaware.org for more information and advice.
Protecting Children
The following procedures are designed to exclude underage players (those under 16 years old) from participating in lotteries and raffles promoted by Diabetes UK Services Ltd:
- Promotion of our gambling products does not specifically or intentionally target people under the age of 16. We are careful to consider the selection of media outlets, style of presentation, content and context in which they appear.
- Where possible we check our database to ensure persons are above the legal age limit before data is supplied for the use of a lottery.
- Where we receive marketing contact data from third parties, we ask that all persons under 16 years of age are excluded from the list before being supplied for the use of our lotteries.
- Lottery or raffle tickets may only be purchased once the player has self-certified that they are over 16 years of age.
- Any player that is found to be under 16 years of age will have any monies paid in relation to the lottery or raffle returned to them and will not be eligible to receive a prize.
- If in doubt, Experian Age Verification will be used to ascertain the age of the entrant.
- Every Diabetes UK lottery and raffle promotion carries a clear ‘no under 16s’ message.
- Age restriction applied to exclude under 16’s viewing video uploads on YouTube.
- Twitter age-screening function applied to restrict advertising to under 16s
- Age clarification is requested at the top of each called received. 16 & 17-year-olds are restricted purchasing one line of entry to the Diabetes UK lottery.