Frontrunner to take over the National Lottery vows to double the amount given to charity

The frontrunner to take over the National Lottery has promised to more than double the amount current operator and rival Camelot has given to charity in the past ten years.

Allwyn has pledged to donate £38 billion to good causes over the next decade if it wins the licence – up from £16 billion donated by Camelot since 2012.

The decision on who will win the new lottery franchise could be taken by the Gambling Commission as soon as tomorrow, though the outcome may not be made public until later next month.

The frontrunner to take over the National Lottery has promised to more than double the amount current operator and rival Camelot has given to charity

The race has been neck and neck between Camelot and Allwyn, Europe’s largest lottery operator.

Allwyn’s good causes pledge was made as part of its application, submitted in October – details of which have been seen by The Mail on Sunday. It comes after politicians raised concerns about the proportion of Camelot’s revenues that have gone to good causes.

The company’s profits soared from £29 million in 2010 to £78 million in 2020 – which critics have suggested is partly due to placing a greater emphasis on scratch cards. An average of 10p in every pound spent on scratch cards goes to charities, compared with 30p in the pound from draws.

However, Camelot, which has run the Lottery since 1994, insists it is incorrect to link any rise in profits to greater focus on scratch cards.

Allwyn, run by Czech billionaire Karel Komarek, has also proposed slashing ticket prices from £2 to £1 and having two draws on one night, which sources say would boost how much money then goes to charity. 

One industry source claimed last night that Allwyn’s commitment to boost good causes funding was ‘exactly the shot in the arm the Lottery needs’.

The source added that it was ‘truly shocking that money to good causes has fallen from 28 to 23 per cent over the past decade’.

Sources close to Camelot hit back last night. They said annual returns to good causes were now over £500 million higher than they were at the start of the third Lottery licence in 2009.

A spokesman said last night: ‘Camelot continues to retain around 1p in every pound spent by players, while around 95p goes back to winners and society – through Good Causes, prize money, Lottery Duty and commission paid to our retail partners.’

The Gambling Commission said that it was still ‘in the process of evaluation’, adding: ‘We are therefore unable to comment on the application process or on individual applicants at this time.’