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Camelot win rights to run lottery on the back of their new £250 million prize draw
Last updated at 07:22am on 08.08.07
Camelot has won the licence to run the game for another 10 years
But regulators accused it of being overoptimistic with sales targets in its bid.
It is also likely to be criticised for having a monopoly on the lottery, which it has run exclusively since the game was launched by the Government in November 1994.
Camelot won the contract from 2009 to 2019 against competition from just one rival bidder, Indian lottery organiser Sugal&Damani, because the National Lottery Commission believed it would provide the most cash for good causes.
The regulator also chose Camelot for its plan for a world draw creating 100 millionaires a month with a £250million jackpot. It says 48 countries are interested in joining.
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Camelot has won another ten-year licence, but how do the numbers stack up?
But it was critical of Camelot's promise to increase ticket sales by more than 50 per cent and bring a big boost to the money for good causes and the 2012 Olympics. After examining Camelot's £20million, 18,000-page bid document, the commission said it "did not find all the evidence compelling".
It also said there was "a lack of convincing evidence about the cumulative impact" of Camelot's plans and expressed concern over low assessment of possible losses, adding "the degree of risk had been understated".
As the "preferred bidder", Camelot has a month to finalise the contract. It promises to sell tickets worth £79billion over the decade, even though it only had sales of £5billion last year. Sugal&Damani promised sales of £63.9billion.
There will be 27,000 extra terminals, online games with an element of skill as well as luck, and plans for a "player card" to automatically identify buyers and eliminate the risk of lost tickets.
Tory culture spokesman Jeremy Hunt said: "Confidence in the Government's running of the project is so rock-bottom that what should be a competitive process is a walk-over for Camelot even when they fail to convince the commission of the merits of their bid.
Ministers control 50 per cent of money raised for good causes, often diverting it to prop up Government spending priorities."
Reader views (8)
Here's a sample of the latest views published.
Al of Glasgow is totally correct with his/her thesis as to what the incentive is behind buying tickets. The simple fact is that the main games of a lottery run on greed. Notions of 'fairness' etc simply don't come into it. It's called human nature and has been proven with all lotteries around the globe. Some of the Amerian lotteries introduced 'caps' to their huge jackpots and found that when they did so the sales decreased. I wonder why though Camelot hasn't proposed removing the 11 rollover rule on the Euromillions game as it was supposed to have not had any form of a 'cap' on it and didn't when the game started? If they hadn't put that restriction on then I wonder what the sales would have been for the week after the 11th rollover last year when it reached £123 million and no one matched the seven numbers as it would have gone to a jackpot of around £148 million or so? When that game reaches £80 million or more even the already very wealthy people of Belgravia, Chelsea and the City start playing it!
- Barry, Brentwood, Essex
Sorry folks. Nice theory, but smaller jackpots and better odds do NOT improve lottery sales. This was proved when Camelot introduced Daily Play, with a £30,000 daily jackpot and 1 in 8 odds. The sales were disastrous. Then they introduced Euromillions - £80 million jackpot, odds of 1 in 72 million - and the sales went through the roof.
- Al, Glasgow
One of the biggest lotteries in America is “Mega millions” and in Europe it is “Euro millions”. I think a great catchy name for this world lottery should be naturally “world millions”.
- Shabbir, London
And how much will the directors receive in bonuses for that then? Richard Branson had the right idea, the lottery should be run as a purely non profit making excercise with all money going back to benefit local communities, but then he lost out to Camelot as well didn't he?
- Pa , London
£250 million is an obscene amount of money to win. I imagine the thinking behind it is to bail out the vastly over budget 2013 (deliberate typo) Olympics. The endless variations of games together with the B-list has beens lottery show probably puts off more people than it attracts.
- Michael, London
There is no reason why there should only be one lottery franchise. It is anti-competitive, monopolistic, and would be in breach of every UK and EU competition rule were it not for specific carve-outs. If more operators were allowed, and given a freer reign, initiatives like this would have happened years ago. As it is Camelot gets "innovative" every 7 years when its licence is up for renewal, then slumbers along as the protected monopoly provider.
- G, London
That's ridiculous, why can't they just have a smaller jackpot (even than they do now) with the rest of the money going to the other winners who get 4 or 5 numbers. So getting 4 numbers, which is difficult enough, would pay out more than the measly amount it currently does. I think there'd be more sales that way.
- Jan, London
Best hope they do not get the franchise then. Inevitably some horrible individual will win the money and be a right nuisance and embarrassment to the whole country.
- Fly, London
