UKGC backs Allwyn amid legal dispute, calls Lottery a “national treasure”
The chief executive of the UK Gambling Commission has described the National Lottery as a “national treasure” and a “jewel in the crown of this country,” while taking the opportunity to reaffirm support for its operator, Allwyn.
Andrew Rhodes’s remarks at the Allwyn Participant Protection Conference on 23 September came against a backdrop of turmoil, with the regulator facing soaring legal costs linked to the ongoing dispute over the 2022 licence award.
He told delegates that the Lottery’s unique status meant it was held to a higher standard than any other form of gambling, making participant protection central to its future.
Regulator faces turbulence amid lottery licence dispute
The conference came at a moment of wider turbulence for the Gambling Commission. Financial filings published this week revealed that the regulator’s lottery-related costs had jumped to £28.8 million for the year to March, with legal bills alone surging from about £400,000 the previous year to over £13 million.
At the heart of the dispute is media tycoon Richard Desmond and his company Northern & Shell, which claims the Commission mishandled the 2022 tender that handed the lottery to Allwyn. The firm is seeking £200 million in damages and has branded the process “controversial.” Desmond, 73, is also pursuing a separate £1.3 billion claim, with a High Court showdown scheduled for October.
Despite the backdrop, Rhodes insisted that the Lottery plays a vital role in British society. “For our sports clubs, our local museums and our historic sites and much more besides,” he said, “just step back for a moment and think about the scale of change that money is able to deliver in communities up and down this country.”
Regulator reaffirms support for licence holder, Allwyn
Rhodes used the occasion to underline his confidence in the lottery operator: “If it is to continue to succeed, it will need to change again over the coming years and I know Allwyn are committed to investing in that future. At the heart of that future though must remain participant protection.”
He praised Allwyn’s recent efforts on harm reduction, pointing to its investments in staff training, retailer engagement and industry partnerships. “Allwyn’s commitment to getting participant protection right – through investment, working with partners, training staff and retailers and events like today is a both vital and welcome,” he said.
Growth, change and risk
Rhodes highlighted the Lottery’s recent financial performance, noting: “In the last financial year the National Lottery raised over £1.8 billion, a welcome rise on the year before. And already this year, in the first quarter, another £485 million was raised. Again, more than the year before.”
He contrasted today’s Lottery with its beginnings in 1994. “In 1994 when we were all told ‘it could be you’ the National Lottery was a single draw based game a week,” he said. “Over time the National Lottery added more draws, it added scratchcards and it added different games on top of that. This means that today, more than 30 years on, the National Lottery looks very different even if at its core, it still happily has the same attraction.”
But he cautioned that with growth came greater responsibility. “Those changes, when combined with the scale the National Lottery operates at, bring with them pressure,” he said. “This scrutiny might not be fair but it is real and it is not going anywhere.”
A national institution – under scrutiny
Rhodes opened his speech by calling the National Lottery “a national institution, a national treasure and one that we at the Gambling Commission take great pride in being a custodian of.” He warned, however, that its scale and visibility brought “added scrutiny” that would not go away.
“Every added product, every increased opportunity for players also changes the challenges. It can, if change is careless increase risks and it can impact the relationship with players,” he said.
Rhodes argued that this pressure was “all the greater because of the added scrutiny the National Lottery attracts.” He told delegates: “Again, its scale, the numbers of people who are part of it, either as players, winners or recipients of funding, mean that the National Lottery is only ever one slip away from headlines.”
‘One of the lowest risk products’
At the heart of Rhodes’s speech was a warning that “it’s just not possible for player protection to be an add-on to the National Lottery – it has to run through it like a stick of rock.”
He told the audience: “The great British public do not want harm coming from the things they treasure and ultimately they won’t tolerate it either.” Although the Lottery is “one of the lowest risk products I and the Commission regulate,” he stressed, “that doesn’t mean participant protection can be an afterthought. Because there will always be a risk, however small. And that risk can and sadly sometimes does lead to terrible harms.”
He also pointed to the importance of listening to people with lived experience of gambling harms. “Another element of getting participant protection right is of course seeking out and listening to those who have experienced gambling related harms,” he said.
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