Lottery tickets make popular gifts and stocking stuffers during the holidays, but while playing is fun, lottery games are intended for adults and not for teens or children.

To help raise awareness on the potential risks of gifting lottery products to children, the Education Lottery is joining more than 50 lotteries and organizations around the world in an annual holiday prevention campaign. For the first time, all U.S. and Canadian lotteries are part of the campaign.

“By working with our partners in the area of problem gambling, we know that some who develop a gambling problem report their first experience came when they were young,” said Mark Michalko, executive director of the N.C. Education Lottery. “We ask North Carolinians to keep the fun for the adults and be active partners with us in preventing lottery tickets from ending up in the hands of minors.”

Besides supporting the holiday campaign, the Education Lottery takes steps year-round to prevent those under 18 from playing. They include:

• Printing a “You Must Be 18 Years of Age To Play” reminder on every ticket and advertising and marketing materials.
• Requiring scans of drivers’ licenses before accessing lottery vending machines.
• Training lottery retailers to check IDs before selling lottery tickets.
• Enforcing the no sales to a minor law in a partnership with state law enforcement agencies.
• Providing $1 million a year to support the N.C. Problem Gambling Program, which provides an evidence-based gambling prevention program to middle school and high school students in the state.

The lottery’s efforts in promoting responsible play are part of its corporate social responsibility program and are commitments the lottery made as it achieved the highest level of responsible gaming certification recognized internationally last December. The Level 4 accreditation from the World Lottery Association attested that the lottery has implemented responsible gaming practices into its day-to-day operations and continuous improvement of them.

For more information on the Holiday Lottery Responsible Gaming Campaign, visit www.ncpgambling.org/holiday.