Riches to Rags for Teen Lottery Winner

Last Updated: Wednesday 2nd June 2010, 15:05

One story this week makes us wonder why 16 is the minimum age to buy lottery tickets yet all other forms of gambling require you to be 18. Callie Rogers won almost £2 million on the UK Lotto back in 2003, when she was just 16 years old but it seems she didn’t have the maturity to handle the fame and choices this gave her and the money almost destroyed her.

In 2003 Callie Rogers hit the headlines when she became the UK’s youngest lottery winner, aged just 16 years old she matched all six numbers in the UK Lotto to win almost £1.9 million. Her life quickly descended into cocaine binges, criminal boyfriends and several suicide attempts.

Callie is now 22 and the money is all but gone, she is trying to get her life back together but the whole saga does pose an interesting question. Why is 16 the legal age to play the UK Lotto.

To enter a bingo hall, play at a casino or bet on the horses in the UK you must be 18 years of age. In fact every form of gambling in the UK carries an 18 age tag, so why is it that to play lottery games and scratchcards the age limit is just 16?

When the lottery was launched the age was set at 16 and still 14 years later I find this decision hard to comprehend. I suspect that the life of Callie Rogers may have turned out a lot differently had she not won the Lotto at 16 and this makes me think it’s time for a change to the lottery age limit.
 

Written by Chris Brown

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