Camelot blames weak sales on lack of new scratchcards

Camelot has admitted that flagging sales of National Lottery Instants scratchcards – which last week achieved their lowest sales so far – has been caused by a lack of new games.

Instants sales plummeted to 16.9 million last week, over 1 million below the previous lowest level of 18.1 million. During the first months of the year, sales levelled out at around 19 million.

A Camelot spokeswoman says: “We have not had a new game for some time, and some people get fatigued with the same game. Sales go up when new games launch. The reason for the low sales last week is that there is a lack of stock about, as many of the games have come towards the end of their run.”

The news is a blow for Camelot, which hopes to see Instants sales stabilise at around 20 million. The company says it plans a number of new game launches over the coming weeks, and would ideally like to see nine or ten Instants games operating at the same time.

Camelot also blames the effects of the double roll-over of million-pound prizes in the on-line game for taking away sales, and says the Bank Holiday weekend may also have contributed to the lower sales figures.