Coroner Flags GamStop's Exemption for National Lottery Draws After a Gambling-Related Death

A senior coroner has told the Gambling Commission that people who self-exclude through GamStop can still play National Lottery draws online. The Commission says it needs up to 12 months of discovery before deciding what, if anything, to change.

• Emma Whitting, Senior Coroner for Bedfordshire and Luton, has sent a Prevention of Future Deaths report to the Gambling Commission and GamStop after the inquest into the death of Steve Goff, 54
• Her concern is that GamStop covers the National Lottery's online instant win games but not its draw games, so a person who has self-excluded can still buy draw tickets online
• The inquest on 7 July concluded that Goff's death was caused by Gambling Disorder and gambling with licensed and unlicensed operators; his last bank payment before he died was to the National Lottery Draw
• The Commission says draw games are generally lower risk, and that it is working with GamStop and Allwyn UK on options including extending GamStop's scope "in some form"
• Leigh Day, the family's solicitors, says it is the third inquest this year to find that gambling with unlicensed operators contributed to a death

The Coroner Found a Gap Between GamStop and the National Lottery

Emma Whitting, Senior Coroner for Bedfordshire and Luton, has sent a Prevention of Future Deaths (PFD) report to the Gambling Commission and to GamStop following the inquest into the death of Steve Goff, a 54-year-old from Leighton Buzzard who took his own life in August 2025. The Times first reported it, according to SBC News, and its matters of concern were published on 12 October by Leigh Day, the solicitors representing Goff's family.

At the inquest on 7 July 2026, the coroner concluded that Goff's death was caused by Gambling Disorder and gambling with licensed and unlicensed operators, according to Leigh Day. Goff self-excluded from all online licensed operators through GamStop in 2018 and again in 2024, the coroner found, but continued to gamble online with the National Lottery Draw, which the scheme does not cover; the National Lottery licence requires a separate self-exclusion process. His last bank payment before his death was to the National Lottery Draw. "By not including online gambling with the National Lottery Draw in the GAMSTOP scheme, there is a risk that consumers having self-excluded via GAMSTOP will still gamble on-line with the National Lottery Draw," the coroner wrote.

Recipients of a PFD report must respond within 56 days. In its response, the Commission said it is working with Allwyn and GamStop on the coroner's concerns, and has begun a discovery phase expected to conclude within 12 months before deciding what action, if any, to take, according to Leigh Day. GamStop said regulation is a matter for the Commission.

Draw Games Were Left Out by Design

Social responsibility code 3.5.5 of the Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice requires remote licensees to join the national multi-operator self-exclusion scheme, but excludes remote lottery licences whose holders do not offer instant win lotteries. When GamStop became mandatory on 31 March 2020, the Commission said lottery operators must join only for online instant win games, "and then only in relation to those games". GamStop's guidance confirms Lotto and EuroMillions are not covered.

Allwyn UK, which took over the National Lottery licence in February 2024, told SBC News it is "working closely with the Gambling Commission as it considers any regulatory changes needed to the scope of Gamstop", and told the Leighton Buzzard Observer the current arrangement was a Commission decision taken when Camelot ran the Lottery. Its safeguards, it says, include monitoring of draw-based games, self-exclusion options, mandatory deposit and spend limits and daily play caps.

A Commission spokesperson told SBC News that draw-based games "are generally lower-risk products relative to other gambling activities", that consumers can already self-exclude from all online National Lottery games with the operator, and that the Commission will explore "the possibility of extending the scope of Gamstop in some form." Goff's daughter Freya Goff said the family welcomed the report for highlighting "the glaring omission" in the scheme, while Dan Webster of Leigh Day said the causes of the harm Goff suffered "went far beyond his gambling with the National Lottery", as the coroner's conclusion reflected.

If you have been affected by this story, Samaritans can be contacted free on 116 123 in the UK, and the National Gambling Helpline, run by GamCare, on 0808 8020 133.

The Exemption Covers the Product Most People Play Online

The Commission's case rests on population risk, and acting chief executive Sarah Gardner told Allwyn's player protection conference on 1 October that the Lottery is one of the lowest-risk products in the Gambling Survey for Great Britain. Yet in that survey's wave covering September 2025 to January 2026, buying National Lottery draw tickets online was the most common online gambling activity, at 25% of adults in the past four weeks, against 8% for online instant win games. A risk rating describes the average player; a self-excluder is not one, and has already asked once to be blocked. The question is whether that person should have to complete a second exclusion with the one operator the scheme omits.

The Lottery Fix Is Within Reach; the Offshore Gap Is Not

Closing this gap is within the Commission's power and looks technically modest: Allwyn already screens against GamStop for its online instant win games, and online draw play also runs through a registered National Lottery account. The harder problem is the one the coroner also recorded, gambling with unlicensed operators that GamStop cannot reach. In January, East Sussex's coroner told the Commission, in the Oliver Long report, that self-excluded consumers may be able to access overseas sites or be targeted by them. Entain says 11 of 20 Premier League clubs now carry an unlicensed gambling sponsor, and no change to the Lottery's scope touches that market. Treating the Lottery as the whole lesson would answer the easier concern and leave the harder one untouched.

A Year of Discovery Is a Long Time for a Narrow Question

Caution has a case, since changes to the most widely played product may carry costs for returns to good causes. But the coroner's question is narrow, and Gardner said this month that the Lottery's status means it must "live up to higher standards" and face "greater scrutiny". A discovery phase of up to 12 months, before any decision on whether to act, sits awkwardly with that standard.

The coroner has identified a specific, fixable gap between the national self-exclusion scheme and the country's most widely played gambling product. How quickly the Commission closes it will show how much weight it gives to the people GamStop exists to protect.