Allwyn has revealed that a fifth of post offices in the UK are to stop selling lottery tickets and scratchcards.
It comes after Post Office decided last year to end its group contract with the National Lottery at the request of postmasters who wanted to receive full commission from sales, previously Post Office took around 1% from each transaction.
The new lottery operator told the PA news agency that 900 of the 5,800 branches that had previously stocked National Lottery products have not signed up to continue.
Allwyn says more than 600 had chosen not to due to reasons ranging from religious beliefs to low sales, while up to 200 were unable to because of county court judgements.
Calum Greenhow, who runs a post office in West Linton in the Scottish Borders with his wife and is Chief Executive of the National Federation of SubPostmasters, told the BBC: “We would still be selling [lottery tickets] if it wasn’t for the scratchcards.
“Under the previous group contract, the Post Office would cover the cost of the cards, but now each individual branch must pay for them themselves.”
In addition, Allwyn said that 98.5% of its 23,000 independent retailers overall had signed up to sell lottery products under the fourth licence.
It has around 40,000 retail partners in total, with the remainder being the big supermarkets and retail chains, which it said were all signing up.
The company’s 10-year licence operating the lottery started on 1 February.
