The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) may pay up to £200 million (US$255.59m) to former porn king Richard Desmond to settle an ongoing legal dispute over the bidding process to run the National Lottery, it’s been reported.
According to reports in the Daily Telegraph, the UKGC is meeting with Desmond’s Northern & Shell holding company in secret this week in a bid to terminate the long-running legal imbroglio.
Desmond–one time owner of porn mags and operator of telephone sex lines, and former proprietor of The Daily Star and Express newspapers and Channel 5 television–took the commission to the High Court claiming £200 million in damages after the lottery licence was controversially awarded to Czech billionaire Karel Komárek’s Allwyn in 2022.
Komárek, an energy and gaming tycoon, formerly linked to Russia’s Gazprom giant, formerly took over the Lotto’s new 10-year licence in February this year with the avowed promise of revamping the tired franchise–still the biggest gambling cash cow in Europe–and increasing the lottery’s contribution to charitable causes.
Misdemeanours
Contacted by iGamingFuture today, the UKGC refused to comment on the mooted private meeting with Northern & Shell.
We also contacted Desmond’s holding company and are still awaiting a response as this article goes to press.
The renewal of the UK Lottery licence continues to be bedevilled by controversy.
Camelot, the company who ran the Lotto since its launch in 1994, also took the GC and Allwyn to court, alleging misdemeanours, following Allwyn’s victory.
Allwyn swerved Camelot’s legal threat by the simple expedient of buying the operator outright from its owner, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Fund in Canada.
Northern & Shell has been a more persistent opponent, branding the recent bidding protest “seriously flawed” and stressing that Allwyn “have no experience in the UK”.
Scandalous
Claiming £200 million in compensation for their failed bid, they also question the source of funding for Allwyn’s successful pitch.
As previously reported by iGamingFuture, Allwyn was in receipt of multi-million pound loans from Kremlin-owned banks only months before they seized the crown of British gambling, a lottery enterprise that has amassed over £50 billion for charity in its 30-years existence.
The government’s Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS), which oversees the UKGC, has also tried to distance itself from the controversy, refusing to comment, in turn, and claiming responsibility lies with the commission.
“DCMS is responsible for the oversight of the National Lottery regime, including overall funding arrangements. We are not party to legal proceedings,” asserted a department spokesperson.
With such a hands-off approach in force, the National Lottery is now effectively facing the scandalous prospect of paying-out up to £200 million in compensation to a former pornographer — money that could, and should, be earmarked for good causes.
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