SCAMALOT LETS DODGY TICKET SCOOP
Stripy Chelle Lotto fined for balls-up
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NATIONAL Lottery operator Camelot has been fined £3million after paying a £2.5m jackpot to an alleged fraudster.
The penalty handed down by the Gambling Commission included £2.5m which would have gone to good causes if the payout had not been made.
The gaffe over the “deliberately damaged” ticket happened in 2009 but went undiscovered for six years.
Hertfordshire Police arrested a man after being alerted by Camelot last year but he was later released without charge.
Camelot chief executive Andy Duncan yesterday apologised for the “unique” bungle that was “not repeatable today”. He said: “It was only when subsequent evidence came to light in autumn of 2015 that it cast doubt on the original decision. So it couldn’t have been known at the time.’’
Mr Duncan declined to say if the alleged fraud was an inside job or whether the company still possessed the dodgy ticket.
The commission ruled that Camelot breached the terms of its operating licence over control of its databases, the way it investigated prize claims and its processes “around the decision to pay a prize”.
Robbery
While its inquiry “could not be certain a fraud had taken place, it was more likely than not that a fraudulent prize claim had been made and paid out”.
The commission said the firm had already taken steps to ensure a similar problem was not repeated.
Labour called on the Government to report to MPs over what it called “the great lotto robbery”, saying it prevented a seven-figure prize being donated to good causes at the time.
Shadow Culture Secretary Tom Watson demanded an urgent statement by the Government.
He said: “Camelot has very serious questions to answer about this fraud which should never have been allowed to take place.”
In July, Camelot was fined £300,000 by the Gambling Commission after publishing inaccurate Lotto Millionaire Raffle results on the National Lottery website for an hour on October 10 last year which were viewed by more than 100,000 people.
A Camelot spokesman said the latest error was “not related in any way to National Lottery draws”.
He added: “It only concerns the controls that were in place at the time to prevent a fraudulent claim on a deliberately damaged ticket and is limited to a unique incident alleged to have taken place over seven years ago.’’