As rumored three weeks back, the UK is going ahead with its plan to merge the Gambling Commission with the National Lottery Commission (NLC) as part of a comprehensive fat-trimming, quango-killing initiative envisioned by David Cameron’s Conservatives. But the two parties aren’t exactly sprinting to the altar, as the shotgun marriage is not expected to be completed until two years hence.
This prolonged stay of execution has the National Lottery operator, Camelot, in a bit of a tizzy. Key members of the NLC have already decided to beat the rush and get out the door now, leaving many key decisions in limbo. Camelot introduces around 70 new lottery products each year, and with confusion reigning at the NLC, the necessary approvals aren’t being granted in a timely business fashion. “Farcical” is the word Camelot’s CEO Diane Thompson used to describe it. “We just can’t get anything done.”
Fair enough, we suppose, but we bet the folks at the NLC are currently speaking of Thompson’s place of employment kinda like Graham Chapman in Monty Python & The Holy Grail: “Let’s not go to Camelot. It is a silly place.”
