National Lottery operator Camelot to pay £1.15m penalty for failings - regulator
National Lottery operator Camelot will pay a £1.15 million penalty package for failings which included a fault within a mobile app and publishing an incomplete list of raffle prizes following a Lotto draw, the gambling regulator has announced.
The Gambling Commission announced the penalty as it said it had completed an investigation into historic control and governance failings at Camelot.
Gambling Commission executive director Richard Watson said: "Camelot has taken a number of steps to rectify the issues and given us assurances that they now have the right processes in place to prevent reoccurrences.
"It is crucial that the National Lottery is run fairly, safely and with integrity and we'll continue to hold Camelot to account."
The commission said problems sufficiently serious to warrant a financial penalty included incomplete results reported online for an Olympic medal prize promotion and incorrect prize outcomes given by the mobile results checker or QR scanner.
Camelot said it would make a payment to National Lottery Good Causes in lieu of a financial penalty.
A Camelot spokeswoman said: "We accept the outcome of the Gambling Commission's investigation in respect of a number of incidents dating back to 2016.
"As part of the regulatory settlement, we have accepted the historical licence breaches identified, provided voluntary undertakings and will make a payment to National Lottery Good Causes in lieu of a financial penalty.
"While we have always sought to run The National Lottery to the highest possible standards, we accept that, at the time of these incidents, our standards in certain areas weren't as rigorous as they should have been and for that we're sorry.
"We've since proactively carried out an extensive programme of work to strengthen our controls, processes and governance arrangements to ensure they are all fit for purpose - and welcome the Commission's recognition of the work we've carried out to mitigate the risk of future issues."
