Online National Lottery Tickets

samjenkins

Good afternoon,

A couple of weeks ago I purchased eight Euromillions tickets using the National Lottery website. When I made the purchase I mistakenly checked the wrong draw date (Friday instead of Tuesday).

Upon realising my mistake I immediately phoned up the National Lottery customer helpline to try and rectify the problem - either by changing the draw date on the tickets, or by cancelling and refunding them. However, I was told that neither option was possible as I had verified the tickets upon purchase.

This doesn't sound right to me, the tickets are digital, the draw date is 5 days away, why would they refuse to help?

I wanted to know what my consumer rights were so I initially contacted the Citizens Advice Consumer Service, they refereed me to The Gambling Commission, who then directed me to the National Lottery Commission. The final response was as follows:

Thank you for your email of 27 June 2013 regarding your EuroMillions purchase.

The National Lottery Commission licences and regulates the National Lottery. We have a duty to ensure that the National Lottery is run in a fair and honest way and that the interests of all players are protected. Subject to these duties, we ensure that as much money as possible is raised for good causes.

In terms of protection, in the matter you raise, we are first looking to see that all players are dealt with consistently, in line with Camelot processes.

I understand that you recently purchased eight EuroMillions tickets, via your Interactive Account, and mistakenly selected the wrong draw date. Immediately following this you contacted Camelot and asked for the date to be altered or the money refunded. Camelot advised you that this was not possible.

In your email to the Commission you have explained that you currently do not wish to make a formal complaint but are seeking to understand Camelot’s decision.

Having investigated we note that this is in line with the Rules for Draw Based Games Played Interactively set out on the National Lottery website, given that the play was not defective and Camelot have provided you with appropriate information. I have copied out, and appended to this email, the relevant rules for your records and provided you with a link should you wish to look at them in more detail.

We do empathise with the situation but hope that this response sufficiently answers your question and gives you assurance on the response you were given.

The Commission does appreciate the time you have taken to make us aware of this. As you can imagine we get a lot of correspondence relating to the National Lottery. The Commission will continue to monitor the nature of your concerns in relation to future complaints on the same subject and will review the position again as it considers appropriate.

For more information about the Commission and our role please click here.


Appendix 1: Interactive Game Rules

4(J)(1) Each Player is responsible for verifying that the Selection(s), the Games, the dates and frequency of Draws set out on the Ticket correspond with those marked on his Interactive Play Slip and/or Direct Debit Play Slip and/or Direct Debit Details.

5(D)(3) Where instructed by the Commission, the Company shall, or in its discretion acting reasonably, the Company may declare that a Play or a Claimed Play is defective. In such circumstances, all relevant Plays and all relevant Prizes won shall be void and the Company shall either:
(a) give the affected Player an opportunity to play another Play of equivalent price; or
(b) refund to the affected Player the sums paid by that Player in purchasing the defective Play or Claimed Play.
The Company may decide which of (a) or (b) above shall apply.

Players do not have the right to cancel a Play and save as provided in Rule 5(D)(3)(b) no refunds will be given in any circumstances.

URL = national-lottery.co.uk/player/p/termsandconditions.ftl#RulesInteractive

So can my normal consumer rights really be voided by terms and conditions?

Thanks,
Sam Jenkins

battleborn

Could you not have just purchased another batch for the date you wanted?

You never know it might be fate, and you might win care of your mistake.

wealdroam

samjenkins wrote: »

So can my normal consumer rights really be voided by terms and conditions?

What 'normal consumer rights' do you feel have been voided?

Distance Selling Regulations do not allow for the cancellation of 'gaming, betting and lottery services'.

Hintza

samjenkins wrote: »

So can my normal consumer rights really be voided by terms and conditions?

Which normal consumer rights?

As above why didn't you just accept YOUR error or buy again?

Cycrow

did you not bother checking the ticket before buying ?

You have to confirm it twice before it goes through, and the 2nd time they even show you the ticket you are buying

WestonDave

It sounds like (and forgive me if I've picked up the wrong impression) you think there is a consumer right to a refund/cancelation simply because you change your mind (the Marks and Spencers refund policy). However that is not the case - you can only seek to unpick a transaction where the item is faulty unless the terms and conditions (such as at M&S) grant you additional rights. This clearly doesn't apply to Camelots ticket sale terms.

There is a right to a "cooling off period" where you can cancel transactions for any reason within the Distance Selling regulations however its pretty obvious that you can't apply a 14 day rule like that to a gambling ticket due for 5 days away otherwise everyone would buy a ticket for two days away and get it refunded when it didn't win!

Its therefore not a case of Camelot overriding your consumer rights - their actions are in compliance with the consumer rights relating to the transaction you got involved with. Its worth remembering that in general the principle is buyer beware - the alterations to that rule are generally where the seller is extra "nice" or where there are reasons you can't check what you are buying before you contract to buy it (e.g. sold at a distance)

samjenkins

Perhaps the question at the end of my post was a mistake.

The purpose of my investigation, and ultimately this post, was to ascertain my consumer rights with regard to Lottery tickets.

With most products and services that I purchase (digital or not), I am able to obtain a refund if I am not happy.

I admit that it is most definitely my fault for checking the wrong draw date, and i even checked the purchase - still thinking that the draw I wanted was Friday instead of Tuesday. So i have no excuse.

Now if this was a betting slip then I would totally understand, things change, and that's where the odds/risk comes in - hence no refund or modifications to the ticket.

But for a lottery, where odds are fixed and the outcome of the draw is not affected by external influences, why would they refuse to refund or modify tickets for a draw several days in advance?

If I had bought the ticket in a shop would I still be in the same situation?

moyesforever

Your consumer rights have not been broken.

jkkne

samjenkins wrote: »

If I had bought the ticket in a shop would I still be in the same situation?

Yes.
https://www.national-lottery.co.uk/player/p/help/playinginstore/faqs.ftl

The online purchase actually shows a graphic of the ticket with the date and you have to confirm twice. Camelot have done all they can here to help

samjenkins

WestonDave wrote: »

It sounds like (and forgive me if I've picked up the wrong impression) you think there is a consumer right to a refund/cancelation simply because you change your mind (the Marks and Spencers refund policy). However that is not the case - you can only seek to unpick a transaction where the item is faulty unless the terms and conditions (such as at M&S) grant you additional rights. This clearly doesn't apply to Camelots ticket sale terms.

There is a right to a "cooling off period" where you can cancel transactions for any reason within the Distance Selling regulations however its pretty obvious that you can't apply a 14 day rule like that to a gambling ticket due for 5 days away otherwise everyone would buy a ticket for two days away and get it refunded when it didn't win!

Its therefore not a case of Camelot overriding your consumer rights - their actions are in compliance with the consumer rights relating to the transaction you got involved with. Its worth remembering that in general the principle is buyer beware - the alterations to that rule are generally where the seller is extra "nice" or where there are reasons you can't check what you are buying before you contract to buy it (e.g. sold at a distance)

Thanks for this response. I did try and research the answer before my original post but didn't find anything.

Having now repeated my search in Google with "lottery ticket cooling off period" , the Citizens Advice Bureau clearly states that Lottery services are not covered by the cooling off period.

This is all I wanted to know.

Thanks.

samjenkins

Hintza wrote: »

Which normal consumer rights?

As above why didn't you just accept YOUR error or buy again?

I don't understand why you bothered to waste your time with this response?

The reason why I didn't 'just accept my error' was because i was unaware of my consumer rights. This is clearly indicated within my original post.

If i did have a legal right to a refund of £16, I would have liked it back rather than 'just accepting' that I'd lost it.