Lotto regulator receives fewer than 30 complaints in 2025, one over the term ‘easy money’

The Regulator of the National Lottery received fewer than 30 complaints last year, with the lotto’s online experience listed as the most common issue, although a gripe over the phrase “easy money” has prompted a change of script in its most-viewed gameshow.

Of the 28 complaints submitted to the regulator’s office, 10 were related to online experience, seven were a result of the game’s design, five had to do with the information provided to players and another five were a complaint of the retailer. Only one was regarded as not related to the lottery at all, according to the regulator’s annual report.

However, following two complaints made in 2024 and 2025, the regulator said it requested the removal of expressions such as “easy money” and “giving away lots of cash” from the Telly Bingo programme’s script, which the lottery operator “promptly agreed to”.

“The regulator was concerned that using such terms could be misleading and trivialise the nature of the product,” the organisation wrote in its annual report, as money “is not given away for free or to everyone participating”, but instead is awarded through a random draw to participants who purchased a €2.50 Telly Bingo ticket.

It also reviewed its marketing emails to Lotto account holders, which it sends only when players “have explicitly opted-in to receiving them”. The lotto operator “monitors player activity for risk indicators that are suggestive of problem gambling”, the regulator’s annual report read, and sends a “responsible play communication” to encourage them “to reflect on their spend”.

Online controls may be implemented, such as spending limits, self-exclusion and third-party support services. “Ultimately, this interaction can be escalated to a phone call and, where needed, the exclusion of a player”, the regulator wrote.

Glenisk co-owner Vincent Cleary on rebuilding the company after it burned to the ground

Listen |

46:34

It conducted a further review into its marketing practices, finding “the operator routinely disabled marketing emails where certain problem gambling risk indicators were detected”. It further recommended “that marketing emails be disabled for longer periods for this group of players”, which the operator agreed to.

The National Lottery donated nearly €240 million to its “good causes” programme in support of community initiatives, charities and public services, representing a one per cent increase from the previous year.

Sales of national lottery tickets amounted to €871 million last year, up 1.8 per cent from €855 million in 2024, with sales conducted online representing nearly one in five purchases and totalling €155 million.

In the regulator’s financial accounts for the 2025 financial year, the organisation accrued €1.82 million in income and €1.61 million in administrative costs, leaving it with a €210,00 in operating surplus and €3.53 million in retained earnings at the end of the year.