Lottery fight ‘could cost good causes £1bn’
A LEGAL row over the National Lottery could blow a £1billion hole in funds set aside for good causes, according to its former boss.
Dame Dianne Thompson has told the Gambling Commission to delay transferring the licence to new operator Allwyn to avoid the fiasco.
Such a sum would be a significant drain on the fund, which last year revealed that it had distributed £1.88billion to good causes, such as community, arts and sports projects among a range of others.
The heavyweight intervention emerges as the commission heads for court with the current holder of the licence, Camelot, in October.
Dame Dianne said the commission should wait until the case is concluded before going ahead with the transfer.
Camelot reacted with shock to the news in March that control of the lottery has been removed after nearly three decades. It has held the licence since the launch in 1994. The new operator is backed by Czech billionaire Karel Komarek and also operates lotteries in Austria, Italy, Greece, and Cyprus.Camelot boss Nigel Railton said the commission had got the decision ‘badly wrong’ and that he had ‘no choice’ but to take the matter to court.
Dame Dianne was Camelot chief executive from 2000 to 2014. She expressed her concern in a letter to the commission, seen by The Mail on Sunday. Potential damages, which she said would end up being drawn from the fund, could equate to up to a decade’s worth of Camelot’s profits – the equivalent to the full-term of the next licence.
Camelot is understood to want to regain control of the lottery by overturning the decision in court, rather than recoup its potential losses. A judge is expected to ultimately decide whether damages are appropriate.
But Dame Dianne said transferring the licence before the outcome of legal proceedings would hamper any chance of reconsidering the decision. ‘No one – least of all the Gambling Commission – would wish to risk taking up to one billion pounds from good causes, particularly during a cost of living crisis,’ she said.
The Gambling Commission said: ‘We are confident that we have run a fair and robust competition. A delay to the implementation of the [next] licence poses a significant risk which could diminish funds going to these causes.’