High Court rejects legal challenges relating to the National Lottery
Media tycoon Richard Desmond plans to appeal the decision
The High Court in the UK has rejected in full the claims brought by The New Lottery Company Limited (TNLC) and Northern & Shell PLC (N&S) against the Gambling Commission in relation to the award of the Fourth National Lottery Licence.
Media tycoon Richard Desmond, who owns The New Lottery Company, has said he will appeal after he sued for £1.3bn in damages from the Gambling Commission over its decision not to award him the 10-year licence to run the national lottery.
In summary, the claims alleged that the UK Gambling Commission had wrongly awarded the Fourth National Lottery License to Allwyn, and that instead, TNLC should have won the competition. The claims also alleged that the Gambling Commission and Allwyn had entered into impermissible modifications to the Licence arrangements following the competition.
The lengthy trial of the claims took place in the High Court before Mrs Justice Joanna Smith between 9 October and 2 December 2025, with an additional day on 13 January 2026.
The High Court has now ruled in favour of the Gambling Commission on all of the claims, rejecting the allegations which had been made.
By the close of the three-month trial in January 2026, many of TNLC’s allegations had been abandoned. In a 280-page judgment, Joanna Smith J dismissed the remainder of the claims in full.
The Judge specifically found that during the Competition for the 4th Licence, TNLC had been properly disqualified for ‘failing over half’ of the 23 ‘different mandatory requirements’ necessary for its bid to be eligible for acceptance, that there was an ‘enormous gap’ of over 30 per cent in scores between its aggregate score and Allwyn’s, and that TNLC had stood no real chance of winning the Competition. The Licence had therefore been fairly and properly awarded by the Gambling Commission to Allwyn.
The Judge also found that the modifications made to the Licence by the Gambling Commission were lawful. Confirming that they were not made necessary due to any fault of Allwyn – as TNLC had initially claimed – the Judge found that they had instead been caused by the ‘hostile litigation’ pursued by Camelot and IGT between 2022 and 2023 and ‘would almost certainly have been required irrespective of the identity of the successful bidder .’ The Gambling Commission were therefore fully justified in modifying Allwyn’s Licence to take account of the delays that Camelot and IGT had caused.
Addressing TNLC’s claims for £1.3bn damages, the Judge said that they had suffered no loss (and had no standing) because it is ‘fanciful to suppose that TNLC would have won’ any competition against Allwyn, the ‘world leader in conducting lotteries.’ The Judge also held that TNLC’s modifications claim was time-barred.
The Gambling Commission said: “This is an important judgment for the future of The National Lottery that we welcome. This judgment makes clear that the Gambling Commission ran a fair and robust competition to award the Fourth National Lottery License, and that none of the contested changes to the License, in the course of its implementation, were substantial or contrary to the relevant procurement regulations.
“The judgment gives resounding support to Good Causes by enabling Allwyn, with oversight from the Commission, to continue with their plans of investment in The National Lottery without further distraction. Our priority remains to continue regulating The National Lottery for the benefit of participants and Good Causes.”
Mrs Justice Smith said in her judgement: “The claimants have failed to make out any case of manifest error on the part of the commission in their process claim. They have also failed to establish that either [previous licence holder] Camelot or Allwyn should have been disqualified from the competition, whether by reason of incumbency advantage (Camelot) or conflict of interest (Allwyn). The competition that was conducted for the award of the fourth licence reached a lawful outcome.”
A spokesperson for Northern & Shell said: “They won. We lost. We appeal. It’s not over.”
The National Lottery is one of the world’s largest lotteries and since launching in 1994, National Lottery players have collectively raised more than £52 billion for more than 670,000 Good Causes across the U.K., transforming lives and contributing to the arts, sport, heritage and communities.
