The number of children claiming to buy National Lottery tickets has fallen to the lowest level ever.

A recent report showed that only 2% of children had bought National Lottery tickets with their own money in the week preceding the survey, which is down from 5% in 2005/06, the last time the survey was conducted.

The survey of 9,000 children aged between 12 and 15, is conducted by Ipsos MORI and the Centre for the Study of Gambling to test the effectiveness of Camelot’s child protection measures, also revealed that 4% had bought scratch cards, down from 6% in 2005-6.

The report attributes this drop to Camelot’s campaign to ensure that the promotion of National Lottery games do not encourage underage play and test purchases are carried out by the operator resulting in extra vigilance from retailers.

Association of Convenience Store chief executive James Lowman was pleased with the results of the survey and urged trading standards agencies to take note of this success.

“The prevention of underage purchase of lottery tickets is a success story,” said Lowman. “Retailers are proving to be an effective frontline in preventing underage lottery play. One of the key ingredients of the success is the partnership forged between Camelot and operators that strikes the right balance between training, education and enforcement.