Camelot drops UK national lottery legal challenge

theguardian.com:

Camelot has dropped its appeal against a legal ruling over the handover of its licence to operate the UK’s national lottery to its rival Allwyn.

Camelot, which has run the national lottery since it was launched in 1994, said it had withdrawn its legal challenge that would have resulted in it going to the court of appeal next week. It added that it would “now cooperate with Allwyn and the Gambling Commission to facilitate an orderly transition to the fourth licence”.

This means that Allwyn, owned by the billionaire Czech entrepreneur Karel Komárek, who made his fortune in sectors including oil and gas, will run the lottery from February 2024.

Camelot decided not to proceed with the appeal after it emerged that more than £1bn for good causes could be lost over its legal action if it delayed the handover of the £6.4bn contract, as reported by the Observer.

The Gambling Commission had warned in a legal submission obtained by the Observer that there would be an “overall shortfall of payment to good causes of at least £1bn and, in the case of an interregnum, considerably more”.

A Camelot spokesperson said on Tuesday: “By pursuing the opportunity to be awarded the fourth licence, Camelot has sought to limit the risk that good causes or the exchequer would have to meet damages if the licence award was found by a court to have been unlawful. “However, it has become clear that the potential damages covered by the undertakings needed for the appeal to proceed would have been too large, and involved too great a commercial risk, for it to be reasonable to provide them. “For that reason, Camelot has decided to withdraw its appeal in relation to the lifting of the suspension and Allwyn has agreed not to pursue any damages against Camelot