UK’s Youngest Lotto Winner Says She’s Proof Kids Should Be Banned From Playing

June 1, 2020October 15, 2021 Doris Jensen

There are various forms of gambling. It could be at a physical walk-in casino with various tables and slot machines where people could be free to choose between blackjack, roulettes or any other games they want to gamble on. It could also be in the form of online casinos where people can play anywhere and any time through their mobile phones or through their computers through downloaded apps or websites.

UK’s Lotto Winner Says Kids Should Be Banned From Playing

The legal age for gambling varies from country to country. Most countries in Asia set it at 21 years old, most states in the United States set it at 18 years old, whereas South America and Australia at 18 years old respectively.

Callie Rogers, a lady from the UK had once bought and won the lotto when she was only 16 and this had totally changed her life, but all for the wrong reasons. She thinks that kids should be banned from playing casino games. The UK’s youngest lottery winner thinks that the age limit should be raised from 16 to 18 and mentioned that her life is living proof it needs to change in an interview with the Mirror Reporter.

She had won more than £1.8 million when she was only 16, when speaking about her win, she told the Mirror how landing a fortune at 16 brought her life into a cycle of despair as she suffered physical and verbal abuse and was constantly being hounded by ‘fake friends’ who only wanted a slice of her fortune.

Right now at 32, she is glad that the cash has gone. She added that people still ask about the lottery win all the time. “You are only a 16, with all that responsibility. At that age, you can get the best advice ever. But you are not in a position to listen. I was too young. Overnight I went from carefree child to adult. All these years on, it still gets dragged up. Even when I go for job interviews, I am thinking about it. I suffer from such bad anxiety when I am going to meet new people. It preys on my mind, what a new partner’s family will think of me, or even new friends. I still get abuse just because of who I am”.

She feels she was too young to handle it and wants to stop others from going through the same thing. She thinks that kids should be banned from playing casino games.

I Am The Happiest I Have Ever Been

Single mum-of-three Callie is now earning just £12,000 a year as a carer and living in a £500-a-month rented home. She welcomed a government consultation on the lottery gambling age and joined the campaign to raise it. When she won she was earning £3.60 an hour as a Co-op shop assistant in her home town of Workington, Cumbria. Callie recalled how when she was told she had scooped the jackpot on June 28, 2003, making her Britain’s youngest Lotto winner at 16 years and three months.

Even then she says she thought it was “too much” money. She added that she was in foster care for the first time and really felt happy and didn’t need the money. She even told them that she didn’t want that much money when being told the £15 million lotteries winning but still got £1.85 million after sharing. “At 16 you do not know what is ahead of you, because by God I did not expect any of that. I asked the Co-op if I could have my old job back.” She then moved out at 16, with her then-boyfriend.

Callie also went and splashed the cash on holidays, cars and presents with her 2 other 2 kids and fireman, Paul Penny. “I would give money to distant relatives and friends of friends. I loaned £20,000 here, £13,000 there. I would never get it back. People asked for money for new cars and I would help out. I had a soft touch. Now I realise what they were like. I was exploited because of my age. I had a lot of fake relationships.”

A Downward Spiral

However, at the age of 21, she and Nicky had a difficult time. She tried to kill herself and her children were taken away from her. She spent £17,000 on boob jobs to boost her self-confidence but she denies spending £250,000 on cocaine. She said: “Put simply, someone else was going to sell a story on me. It was put to me that I might as well talk about it. So many people made money from selling fake stories. So I agreed to talk. I know that I was far from perfect. I did what teenagers do and I went out and had parties”.

One thing she mentioned is that she has never been a druggie or blown a load of money on cocaine. The last of Callie’s jackpot went seven years ago on a £30,000 deposit for her former family home. Her ex-partner, Paul, 40, still lives there and she regards it as an investment for her children. She also bought a house for her grandparents now worth £140,000.

The Publicity Was The Hardest Part

She mentioned the hardest part was the publicity when talking about the win. Suddenly everyone would start dragging up her past and the story was so good for Camelot and they reckoned their ticket sales rocketed after she had won. But indeed the win was just a small part of her life. She was pleased to help all her family but the money was never that important to her, probably because she never had any growing up.

Continued Support

Camelot said: “Callie received extensive support from us which lasted many years. She didn’t take up the independent financial and legal advice offered by us”. She thinks kids should be banned from playing casino games.

This shows just how much the gambling industry has to improve on the security and age verification of their players. The online gambling industry makes it so much harder to do so with popular sites such as Online Slots Review and Mega888 being so easily accessed by anyone.

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Doris Jensen

Doris is a professional casino blog author that writes about everything about the online casino industry.