We’ll also look at whether the UK Gambling Commission could be doing more to prevent underage gambling. On this page, we will explore the different gambling age laws in the UK and new restrictions designed to protect underage players. The minimum age to buy a lottery ticket is different from the minimum age required to enter a land-based casino, for example. Unlike many other countries with a simple ‘one minimum age for all gambling activities,’ the UK again likes to make things complex. Regardless of the legality of buying cigarettes in the UK, the minimum age for gambling is also quite complicated. In fact, in countries like the USA, the legal smoking age in some states is 21, so it becomes even more apparent that these age laws and regulations are arbitrary. To make things even more complicated, add to that the fact that it’s not actually illegal for anyone under 18 to smoke cigarettes - only purchase them - and things start to get even more confusing. Why is it that a 5-minute difference determines whether the simple act of buying cigarettes is legal or not? Five minutes later, you’d be able to buy that pack of cigarettes legally. For example, if you lived in the UK and went to your local Tesco and tried to buy a pack of cigarettes when you were 17, 5 minutes before you turned 18, you would be breaking the law. There’s a plethora of rules, restrictions, and arbitrary decisions made in our lives on our behalf, and these are often in the form of laws.
