The Gambling Commission has announced that it is looking for new bidders for the National Lottery, with the current operators’ license set to run out in 2023.
And in kicking off the search for a new operator, the Commission have said that they want bidders to focus on improving the existing lottery product with fresh ideas and innovations while at the same time increasing its potential to help charitable causes.
Camelot has been in charge of the National Lottery since it was created in 1994, and has raised more than £38 billion over that time, but speaking about the future of the lottery, the Chief Executive of the Gambling Commission, Neil McArthur, said that he feels there is untapped growth potential, and that the Commission would be looking for bidders who could take the Lottery into a new era.
Fair return
The announcement follows calls from UK lawmakers earlier this year for the next Lottery licence agreement to offer a ‘fair return’ and to be more flexible than the current arrangement, which MPs said made it difficult to introduce changes at a time when ticket purchases were in decline.
The cost of Lottery tickets increased from £1 to £2 in 2013, which represented the first price increase since it was set up. In 2017, the Lottery produced sales of £6.9 billion, but a report earlier this year found that while Camelot’s profits from the Lottery had risen from £39 million to £71 million between 2010 and 2017, the funds that the Lottery generated for charity had risen by only two percent.
In 2010, Camelot were bought by a major Canadian pension fund for £389m in 2010, and were subsequently given an extension to their Lottery deal in 2012.
Blue National lottery sign in front of shop image taken from Nando Machado / Shutterstock.com
