Lottery allowed to carry on selling scratchcards even when all jackpots have been won

The National Lottery’s blue “Millionaire 7s” scratchcard game, which costs £5 a go, boasts of “six top prizes of £1m”. But if you go and buy one today, the shopkeeper probably won’t tell you that all six £1m jackpots have already been snapped up.

Meanwhile, the Camelot-owned lottery’s £250,000 Gold game, which costs £2, tells buyers there are 15 top prizes of £250,000 – but the reality is that 14 of them have already been nabbed by other people.

And the Cash Vault scratchcard, costing £3, says there are four top prizes of £275,000, but as of this week, there was only one left.

Scratchcards: harmless flutter or costly addiction? Read more

We know this because the Lottery publishes a regularly updated list on its website of all the live scratchcard games and how many top prizes each one has left.

What may surprise some people is that it is allowed to carry on selling scratchcards even when all the advertised jackpots have been won.

The National Lottery says that over time, the number of prizes available in each category will reduce, adding: “Once the last top prize has been validated, retailers will be allowed to continue selling those scratchcards that have already been activated for sale, and any unactivated scratchcard stock will be withdrawn.” In terms of the Millionaire 7s game, The National Lottery says no new packs of these can be put on sale – only scratchcards that are already on display can be sold.