NAO reviews Gambling Commission oversight of National Lottery licence

Reportedly, the National Audit Office has started examining the current National Lottery licence. The public spending watchdog plans to assess whether the Gambling Commission's supervision is producing the strongest achievable benefits for good causes now that Allwyn UK has run the lottery since February 2024. Findings are due in spring 2027.

The NAO said its assessment will look at the discharge of duties by the Gambling Commission and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport regarding the licence. This covers the design and award of the licence, supervision of the handover from Camelot to Allwyn, and steps to sustain delivery through 2034 and shape future licensing.

This 10-year licence is the fourth awarded since the lottery started in 1994, and Camelot did not secure it. Allwyn prevailed in the Gambling Commission's tender over Sisal and Northern & Shell/The New Lottery Company (TNLC), and subsequently acquired Camelot.

TNLC's legal challenge to the Gambling Commission's decision and its conduct of the tender was rejected by the High Court in April. The operator's bid for an appeal was then turned down by the Court of Appeal, removing any prospect of compensation.

Allwyn committed during its winning bid to raising weekly good-cause funding from £30m to £60m, about £3.2bn a year across the licence. That goal remains unmet: contributions in 2025, Allwyn's first full year in charge, came to roughly £1.7bn. Gambling Commission figures put good-cause income at £377.2m for April to June 2026, down on the equivalent period in earlier years.