National Lottery licence to be evaluated by UK watchdog

The UK’s National Audit Office (NAO) has launched an inspection into the fourth National Lottery licence, reviewing whether the oversight of the Gambling Commission is on par to maximise returns to Good Causes. The 10-year licence officially came into force in 2024 under the management of gambling conglomerate Allwyn UK, which replaced previous licence holder Camelot and its tenure as an operator since the lottery launched in 1994. As part of the bidding process, Allwyn UK committed to doubling the amount of good causes funding from £30m to £60m per week, or around £3.2bn per-year, during its mandate. This figure is still to be reached, however, with contributions in 2025 – the first year of the lottery running under Allwyn – totalling around £1.7bn. Historically, good causes contributions are yet to break the £2bn mark, with previous operator Camelot coming close at one point when it generated £1.9bn. Are contributions on schedule? Given the historical context, some have labeled Allwyn’s commitment to doubling good causes as ambitious, but it also underscores how important the national lottery licence is for the company, Ted Orme-Claye, Editor of SBC News, said for the iGaming Daily podcast. “I think that Allwyn in general is a very ambitious company. This really just speaks more to their group-wide ambitions of being a lottery entertainment company. They know that getting that UK lottery tender was a really big moment for them a couple of years ago. “They’d already established themselves as a prominent operator in other markets. The Czech Republic, Greece, building up a bit of a presence in North America as well. Getting that UK contract was a really big moment for them. “I think they wanted to set that target very early to set a precedent throughout the rest of the 10-year license.” Looking at the quarterly contributions in 2026, the Gambling Commission did note that the total amount raised between April and June was £377.2m, which did represent a stark decline compared to the same period in previous years. Viktor Kayed, Senior Journalist at SBC News, added: “It does raise a question when performance falls behind expectations but that underperformance could have a lot of reasons behind it. “It could be the economic environment in the UK itself, it could be the jackpot cycles. If we’re looking at the operator, it could be how those games are being marketed and delivered to market. “However, the drop from April to June being the lowest quarterly figure in a decade will definitely not help Allwyn’s case whenever further scrutiny arises in the future.” NAO’s assessment, scheduled to be concluded in Spring 2027, will now look at the work the Commission and the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) have put into their duties regarding the National Lottery licence, including the design of the award process, the operator transition, and plans to effectively support the licence delivery though 2034.