National Lottery operator Camelot is fined £3.15million for mobile app errors which told thousands of winning players they had lost – days after losing its licence to run the lottery
- 20,000 users told winning tickets were losing tickets when scanning QR code
- 22,210 players bought single tickets but were charged for and received two
- Marketing messages were also sent to customers who had self-excluded
- It comes as Camelot is set to lose its licence to run the lottery after 28 years
National Lottery operator Camelot has been fined £3.15 million for three errors, affecting tens of thousands of players, on its mobile app.
The first failure involved up to 20,000 users who were told their winning tickets were losing tickets when they scanned a QR code between November 2016 and September 2020, the Gambling Commission said.
The second involved 22,210 players who bought single tickets but were charged for and received two tickets.
All were either refunded for the duplicate wager or paid for their wins.
The third error saw marketing messages sent to customers who had self-excluded via Gamstop, a free service that allows users to restrict their online gambling, or who had been identified by Camelot as showing signs of addiction.
None of the 65,400 players were able to buy a National Lottery product through the app, however.
It comes amid a miserable few days for the operator, after it was revealed last week it is set to lose its licence to run the lottery after 28 years.
National Lottery operator Camelot has been fined £3.15 million for three errors, affecting tens of thousands of players, on its mobile app
The first failure involved up to 20,000 users who were told their winning tickets were losing tickets when they scanned a QR code between November 2016 and September 2020, the Gambling Commission said
The second involved 22,210 players who bought single tickets but were charged for and received two tickets
Camelot’s 30-year hold over the National Lottery
Camelot has also boasted that it has created more than 6,300 millionaires or multi-millionaires since the launch in 1994. Pictured: Holly Saul and Ben Lowther, from Cambridge, who won £1m in a EuroMillions draw
When Prime Minister John Major launched ticket sales for a new National Lottery in November 1994, he said Britain would be ‘a lot richer because of the lottery.’
‘It is in every sense the people’s lottery.’
Since then hundreds of millions of ticket stubs have been bought at shop kiosks and online, and some lucky 6,300 people have become overnight millionaires or multi-millionaires.
The lottery was a success from the start, with more than 20 million tuning in to watch the first ever draw on November 19, presented by Noel Edmonds.
The first Lotto numbers drawn were 30, 3, 5, 44, 14 and 22, the bonus was 10, and seven jackpot winners shared a prize of £5,874,778.
With a huge audience to entertain, the lottery attracted star talent to take part in draws, including the likes of comedian Bob Monkhouse, Monty Python star John Cleese and model Ulrika Jonsson.
Constant attempts to reinvent the offering for the primetime Saturday slot in the run-up to draw led 20 game shows over the years, such as Dale Winton’s In It to Win It and Brian Conley’s We’ve Got Your Number where contestants answered questions for cash prizes.
A second lottery draw, Thunderball, was introduced by Camelot on 12 June 1999.
Throughout the early 2000s and 2010s, Camelot saw off attempts to take over their licence and was renewed or extended four times until 2024. Its 28-year hold on the UK lottery has led Camelot to be described as one of the most efficient and robust lotteries in Europe, but has also meant criticism.
The excitement and novelty value of the weekly lottery draw is not what it used to be, and the game shows have not featured since 2017.
In 2018, Camelot was criticised over a falling amount of money raised for good causes, with a National Audit Office report finding that its profits had risen by 122% over seven years while returns to good causes only grew by 2%.
MPs have also criticised Camelot’s a move towards app-based games rather than traditional draws, claiming it risks worsening problem gambling and reducing the amounts given to good causes.
More recently, Camelot has responded to declining sales by launching new products, such as Euromillions, with huge rollover jackpots, and Set for Life. where players can win £10,000 a month for 30 years.
It has also sought out new markets with scratchcards and online instant win games, which give players a much greater chance of winning small amounts of cash.
These games have proved popular, but because more money is handed out in prizes, a smaller percentage of the ticket price goes to good causes.
Gambling Commission chief executive Andrew Rhodes said: ‘We are reassured that Camelot has taken steps to make sure that their National Lottery app is fit for purpose.
‘However, we must caution Camelot that any failings on their duties will be met with consequences.
‘Today’s announcement reinforces that any operator failing to comply with their licence requirements will be investigated by the Commission and we will not hesitate to issue fines if requirements are breached.’
Camelot will give the money to good causes, the Commission said.
It was announced last week that it plans to transfer the licence to run the lottery from Camelot to a rival.
A fiercely contested bidding process was under way between four parties, with officials saying Czech operator Allwyn is the preferred applicant to take over from 2024.
The winning bidder, which runs lotteries in Austria, the Czech Republic, Greece and Italy, could slash the price of tickets back to £1. Camelot had doubled the cost of entry to £2 in 2013.
Allwyn, previously known as Sazka before it rebranded with an anglicised name during the bidding process, has pledged to double charitable donations to £38billion over the next decade.
It could also launch two Saturday night draws in a bid to increase its player pool.
While punters will welcome cheaper costs, Allwyn will hope halving ticket prices can spur on more players to participate.
Figures released by Camelot paint a rosy picture at the company, recording 62 per cent growth in sales since 2009, while 60 per cent of UK adults regularly play National Lottery games.
Despite this, the Hertfordshire-based group lost out to its Czech rivals during the bidding process. MailOnline understands the Allwyn bid was a technology-first approach that highlighted a commitment to furthering its spend on good causes.
Camelot is now expected to take the decision to the courts after reportedly appointing one of Britain’s top QCs, Lord Pannick, to lead its legal fight.
Any legal challenge is expected to be predicated on the ‘scorecard’ system used for grading the four National Lottery bidders, the Times reports.
Allwyn is said to have spent £9million on its bid to become the next lottery operator, and has even appointed Lord Sebastian Coe, the president of World Athletics, to its board as a non-executive director.
While the company has promised to transform the National Lottery, Allwyn’s bid has been cloaked in secrecy and was far from plain-sailing.
But it was less controversial compared to the second National Lottery licence renewal in 2000, when Camelot were initially disqualified from the bidding process and the licence was awarded to Richard Branson’s Virgin Group People’s Lottery.
Camelot challenged the decision in the High Court, winning their case and being re-awarded the National Lottery licence a year later. Branson would describe the decision as ‘cowardly’.
Throughout its 28-year tenure, Camelot has been praised for its contributions to good causes, but has also faced its fair share of criticism.
Julian Knight, chair of the House of Commons culture committee, said: ‘Camelot has had this now over two decades and done a pretty good job in the main but there were some real concerns during the last lottery licence that they veered toward games that didn’t return as much to good causes.’
It doubled the cost of a National Lottery ticket to £2 in 2013, before watching sales plunge almost 10 per cent after the odds on the Lotto were tweaked three years later.
The gambling licence includes all games such as Lotto, EuroMillions – which is run by different operators in each country – and the Thunderball.
Hertfordshire-based Camelot (above) lost out to its Czech rivals during the bidding process after holding the licence for 28 years
Camelot has operated the National Lottery since its launch in 1994, and took over the nation’s screens with televised draws hosted by the likes of Dale Winton, Anthea Turner and John Cleese.
The company fought off seven competing bidders to win the first contract and, within 24 weeks, had placed terminals in 10,000 retailers.
The televised lottery draw had a peak audience of more than 20 million for the first ever result in 1994 presented by Noel Edmonds.
However, at the end of the first licence period in 2001, the novelty had begun to wear off within the public.
Controversy also emerged four years earlier when it was revealed three senior Camelot officials had been awarded six-figure bonus payments.
Bidding for the third term resulted in a High Court fight, led by Camelot, after the licence was initially handed over to Richard Branson’s People’s Lottery.
Camelot won the bid for a third term in 2007, when it fought off competition from Indian lottery group Sugal & Damani – the only other company to make a bid.
The Gambling Commission then awarded Camelot a ten-year licence to run the National Lottery from 2009, before this was extended by a further four years in March 2012.
But after more than 20 years of running the lottery, Camelot has now lost out to Czech operator Allwyn.
From blowouts to benefits: Brits who scooped the jackpot on the lottery and Euromillions then blew it on boob jobs, bum lifts, drink, drugs and brothels
Callie Rogers
Callie Rogers is pictured after her £1.87million lottery win in 2013
Callie Rogers was just 16 when she won a £1.87million lottery jackpot while working as a shop assistant on £3.60 an hour in 2003.
But the mother-of-four from Flimby in Cumbria has suffered a spectacular fall from grace since and is now on benefits after blowing the whole amount.
Miss Rogers spent thousands on wild parties, three breast enhancements and designer clothing, while also giving away large amounts to her family and friends.
But she was also targeted by people who took cash off her, suffered a string of failed relationships and was attacked by two women on a night out.
Then in March it emerged Miss Rogers had been pepper-sprayed by police following a car crash when her 4×4 veered off the road late at night.
She then failed a drugs test and was given a 22-month driving ban following the incident near her boyfriend Jason Fearon’s home in Crosby, Merseyside.
Callie Rogers, pictured in recent years, has suffered a fall from grace since her win and is now on benefits after blowing her winnings
Jane Park
Jane Park was 17 when she won big on the Euromillions in 2013
Jane Park was just 17 when she won £1million after getting lucky with her first-ever Euromillions ticket in 2013.
She has repeatedly stated winning the Euromillions prize ruined her life and even threatened to sue lottery operators Camelot for negligence, claiming someone her age shouldn’t have been allowed to win.
She has confessed that it was only the advice of family members which stopped her going bust after she went on a spending spree.
The jackpot winner paid for a breast enlargement, Brazilian bottom lift and splashed out on a string of luxury holidays and fashion accessories.
In 2019, she revealed she was making money by selling racy topless pictures of herself on subscription site OnlyFans.
In January she said she had moved to Dubai for ‘business’ reasons and this would be a permanent move, but she returned to Scotland in April.
Also last year, she has had a second Brazilian bottom lift in Turkey after her original surgery in 2017 was botched and left her in hospital with suspected sepsis.
Jane Park pictured in more recent years. In 2019, she revealed she was making money by selling racy topless pictures on OnlyFans
Michael Carroll
Michael Carroll scooped the jackpot in 2002 from a £1 ticket
‘Lotto lout’ Michael Carroll blew his £9.7million jackpot on drink, drugs and brothels in a decade – describing it as ‘the best ten years of my life for a pound’.
But he now works seven days a week as a £10-an-hour coalman in Moray, Scotland, after having to start again.
Mr Carroll bought the £1 ticket when he was aged 19 and was working as a binman in Norfolk, but before long he was doing cocaine and drinking huge amounts of vodka before he had even got out of bed.
He gave £4million to friends and family, including his aunt and uncle who raised him following his father’s death when he was aged only 10, but spent the rest on an extreme lifestyle, including three homes and racing cars.
His marriage to wife Sandra Aitken ended after she accused him of sleeping with vice girls – and Mr Carroll has claimed to have bedded some 4,000 women.
He appeared in court more than 30 times, but was handed an ASBO for terrorising his neighbours and jailed for five months in 2004 after failing to comply with a drug treatment order imposed as part of a sentence for cocaine possession.
His accountant warned him in 2005 that he was down to his last million, and in February 2006 he was jailed for nine months for affray.
By 2013, he was declared bankrupt and found himself back on Jobseeker’s Allowance – and he even moved into a hotel for homeless people for three months.
He then worked at the Walkers biscuit factory in Aberlour, before getting a licence to work in an abattoir, but now works as a coal miner and lives in a modest rented flat.
Speaking to the Mirror in 2019, he said: ‘I don’t look back with any regrets, that’s for sure. It was ten years of fun for a pound, you can’t go wrong with that.
‘I wouldn’t want to turn the clock back. But I live a good, free lifestyle now and I’m happier because I’ve got my life back.’
Carroll previously described how he was a ‘full-blown alcoholic’ and drank two bottles of vodka a day
Margaret Loughrey
Margaret Loughrey, 56, was living on benefits of just £58-a-week when she scooped a £27m EuroMillions prize eight years ago, but famously said it had ‘destroyed her’.
Her good luck saw Ms Loughrey dubbed ‘Maggie Millions’ and allowed her to buy a property empire including a £125,000 bungalow, a pub and a former mill turned leisure centre – and give at least half away to good causes.
But she was sectioned four months after the draw and later described life as a multi-millionaire as ‘If there is a hell, I have been in it. It has been that bad’.
Ms Loughrey was found dead by police at her £125,000 home in Strabane, Northern Ireland, last September.
When she won the lottery, Margaret Loughrey had been at the Job Centre living on benefits of just £58-a-week and got the ticket on a whim
The lottery win brought Ms Loughrey nothing but trouble and she vowed to spread her good fortune around.
She said at the time: ‘No point having £27m and being lonely. That can’t make me happy, that can only make me happy that everybody else’s happy and so far everybody is absolutely delighted.’
But within four months of the win she was sectioned before winning her appeal against the mental health ruling.
She bought Herdman’s Mill in Sion Mills in 2014, but it was targeted by fires and vandalism.
Ms Loughrey locked horns with Sion Mills Cricket Club and at one point locked them out of their pitch on the grounds. They eventually came to an agreement they could use it and had done since without incident.
Then in 2015 Ms Loughrey was ordered to do 150 hours of community service after being convicted of assaulting a taxi driver.
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