UK National Lottery operator Camelot has been fined £300k for “putting public confidence at risk.”
On Thursday, the UK Gambling Commission announced the six-figure penalty, which it imposed after Camelot published inaccurate Lotto Millionaire Raffle results on the National Lottery website on October 10, 2015. The UKGC said the incorrect winning numbers were online for an hour, during which they were viewed by over 100k visitors.
The UKGC’s investigation into the cockup determined that Camelot had violated its license obligations in two important respects: (a) players were misled, and (b) they were misled due to Camelot’s failure to observe proper processes and procedures.
The UKGC investigated two similar incidents involving Camelot publishing incorrect information in November and December 2015 but declined to impose penalties in these instances due to their “low impact.”
The National Lottery has contributed more than £35b to good causes since its 1994 inception and UKGC executive director Sarah Gardner said it was “essential that the public can have confidence in how the National Lottery is run.” Gardner said Camelot’s errors had “put at risk that public confidence.”
Gardner warned Camelot that the UKGC “will not hesitate to use our enforcement powers to take the necessary action to make requirements clear and to deter the likelihood of future incidents.”
Camelot’s head of policy and regulatory affairs Daniel Dyball said the company “absolutely accept that we made a mistake in each of the cases and are very sorry that they happened.” Dyball said the incidents were “caused by human error, were quickly identified and promptly fixed,” while reassuring players that it had taken steps to “minimize the chances of these specific issues happening again.”
