The UK High Court has thrown out the legal attack on the award of the fourth National Lottery license, handing an important courtroom win to the Gambling Commission and operator Allwyn. The decision closes, at least for now, one of the longest and most expensive rows linked to one of Britain’s biggest public contracts.
Richard Desmond’s businesses, Northern & Shell and The New Lottery Company, brought the case after failing to secure the license. They were seeking damages of as much as £1.3 billion ($1.8 billion). Their argument was that serious mistakes were made during the 2022 bidding contest and that later adjustments to the license terms should have forced the regulator to start the process again.
The judge, Mrs Justice Smith, rejected every part of the claim. In a detailed ruling, she said the Gambling Commission had conducted a lawful and fair competition. She also found the claimants had not shown any decisive error that would have changed the outcome. Separate arguments that Camelot or Allwyn should have been excluded from the contest were also dismissed.
Mrs Justice Smith also criticized the way the claimants handled parts of the case. In her judgment, she said the Process Claim had been pursued “in an apparently unfocused manner,” with several issues dropped at different stages, including during closing submissions.
She added: “The extent of this moveable feast was regrettable and (given the legal resources available to the Claimants) inexcusable.” The judge said the changing arguments had led to “significant time being wasted by the other parties in dealing with issues which were subsequently abandoned.”
The court also stated the value of the license, describing it as “a 10-year exclusive licence to run an internationally high-profile lottery brand as an effective monopoly, worth over time in excess of £1 billion to its operator.”
Mrs Justice Smith also pointed to the wider national role of the lottery, calling it “something of a national institution, recognised the length and breadth of the country.”
Setting out the scale of public benefit involved, the court said the National Lottery has “raised more than £50 billion for Good Causes,” with funding distributed through more than 650,000 awards as of June 2025.
Allwyn and Gambling Commission’s dispute against National Lottery
The fight has hung over the handover of the National Lottery ever since Allwyn was chosen as preferred bidder in 2022. The company formally took control in February 2024, ending Camelot’s three-decade run after operating the lottery since its 1994 launch.
Before this latest setback, Desmond’s side said it had spent millions preparing its bid and had lost the chance to run the lottery because the process was unfair. This was only one strand of wider litigation around the competition. Camelot and technology partner IGT had also launched earlier legal actions tied to the same license award.
The judgment matters beyond the courtroom because Allwyn has faced separate pressure over delivery of promises made in its winning proposal. Reports last year said the Gambling Commission was considering possible enforcement action after the company missed a contractual milestone linked to technology upgrades and wider modernisation work.
Allwyn has said delays stemmed partly from the sheer scale of replacing ageing systems and partly from the litigation that slowed the rollout of the fourth license. The operator has pledged more than £350 million ($473 million) to overhaul the National Lottery platform and says it wants to increase money raised for good causes.
The ruling appears to remove a major legal cloud for Allwyn as it works through its operational challenges. It may also give the regulator greater certainty as it continues overseeing the current license and future investment plans.
The Gambling Commission welcomed the outcome, saying it confirmed the integrity of the competition and allowed work on the National Lottery to continue without further distraction. Allwyn said the judgment drew a line under years of allegations surrounding the award process.
Desmond’s companies have indicated they intend to appeal.
Featured image: Gambling Commission
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