After almost three decades at the helm of the National Lottery in the U.K., Camelot lost out to Allwyn Entertainment. The company, which will run the lottery for ten years, already showed its intention to cut ticket prices in half, but also reduce instant scratch off games, according to Lottery Post.
Allwyn has bandied about reducing the price of a Lotto ticket from £2 to £1. Camelot raised the cost from £1 to £2 in 2013.
“With the Gambling Commission having put its trust in us, we can immediately start to enact our exciting plans to deliver The National Lottery back to the heart of our country,” Allwyn Chairman Sir Keith Mills said.
The company is also suggesting a push back on scratch-off games to cater to the development of draw-based games.
“[We will] reverse the slide towards scratchcards and instant win games, giving due consideration to the wider societal impact these can have,” Mills and Chairman Elect Justin King said.
Allwyn also touted plans to donate funds to good causes, with a pledge to double contributions as one of its primary goals to £38 billion (US$50 billion) over the next decade.
We know that levelling up is important. We will put planet, people, and community first across everything we do. By growing the National Lottery, we will generate more returns to good causes and greater contributions to the Exchequer,” the company said.
Meanwhile Camelot was fined more than £3 million over lottery errors.
Three technical glitches affected tens of thousands of players, with one of them resulting in customers who were concerned about their gambling or had been identified as displaying signs of addiction being sent marketing messages, according to Sky News.
In the first error, 20,000 users were told their winning tickets were in fact losing tickets when they scanned a QR code between November 2016 and September 2020, according to the Gambling Commission.
The second glitch affected 22,000 players who bought single tickets but were charged for and received two tickets. All were either refunded for the duplicate wager or paid for their wins.
The final error saw customers being sent marketing messages for games, despite the fact they had opted into GamStop, a free service which helps users restrict their gambling or identifies those displaying signs of addiction.
None of the 65,000 players were able to buy a lottery product through the app, however.
Andrew Rhodes, chief executive of the Gambling Commission, said: “We are reassured that Camelot has taken steps to make sure their National Lottery app is fit for purpose. However, we must caution Camelot that any failings on their duties will be met with consequences”.
He added that the announcement was a warning to other operators that they will face investigation and potential fines if they fail to comply with the Gambling Commission’s requirements.
A Camelot spokesperson said: “We accept the outcome of the Gambling Commission’s investigation in respect of three unrelated historical incidents. “We are sorry that some of our controls fell short of the mark in certain very specific circumstances and have paid the fine.
