Gambling Commission defends Allwyn National Lottery award amid fresh legal challenges
Regulator insists it oversaw a “fair and robust competition” as Northern & Shell boss Richard Desmond plans legal action
The Gambling Commission (GC) has once again defended its decision to award Allwyn the fourth National Lottery licence amid reports Northern & Shell boss Richard Desmond is gearing up for a legal challenge.
Desmond, who previously owned the Daily Express, is seeking damages from the regulator over “numerous manifest errors” relating to the licence competition.
As reported by The Guardian, Desmond has claimed the GC made errors in the way it calculated its scores, which ultimately put incoming licence holder Allwyn above the incumbent Camelot and Northern & Shell.
The Guardian has suggested Desmond is seeking £17.5m to cover the cost of Northern & Shell’s bid via the New Lottery Company, plus other “unspecified damages”.
Desmond’s legal challenge is also based on the GC’s failure to not treat all bids equally and failure to provide Desmond with feedback on the “likely success” of the bid, which may have convinced him to withdraw from the process and save costs.
Desmond’s challenge follows the failed attempts by Camelot and its technology partner IGT in seeking damages from the GC in the past.
Those legal battles, which ultimately pushed the transition to the fourth National Lottery licence back, failed to come to fruition for the operator and supplier.
At the time, concerns were raised that should Camelot and IGT succeed in the courts, any damages would be paid out of the good causes fund.
It has been suggested that should Desmond succeed in his legal challenge, costs would be taken from good causes.
A GC spokesperson told EGR that the regulator was “confident” that it ran a “fair and robust competition” for the National Lottery.
The spokesperson said: “We took every step possible to ensure a level playing field for all interested parties, to enable us to appoint a licensee who will engage and protect players, run the National Lottery with integrity and ensure the National Lottery continues to support good causes and their contribution to society.
“We received four applications at the final stage. This is the highest number of applications since the first National Lottery licence was awarded in 1994,” they added.
EGR has approached Northern & Shell for comment.