The UK National Lottery, its operator Allwyn UK, and the Gambling Commission have all been able to breathe a sigh of relief this week.
This is because a two year legal battle between the Gambling Commission and media mogul Richard Desmond regarding Allwyn’s National Lottery contract may finally be over.
The High Court had already ruled against Desmond’s £1.3bn claim for restitution relating to the 2022 National Lottery licence contest, which was won by Allwyn UK.
This week, the Court of Appeal rejected the businessman’s request to appeal the High Court decision, with presiding judge Lord Justice Peter Coulsen dismissing all three grounds raised by Desmond’s lottery firm, The New Lottery Company (TNLC).
Speaking to Lottery Daily, an Allwyn spokesperson remarked that the Court of Appeal’s decision “finally brings to an end years of litigation brought by unsuccessful applicants arising from the competition for the fourth National Lottery licence”.
National Lottery in the courts
Since winning the licence contest back in 2022, Allwyn has become all too familiar with the inside of a corporate courtroom. The company has battled legal challenges from:
- Former National Lottery licence holder Camelot UK, which had operated the product since the lottery’s 1994 creation. Camelot’s claim was dropped in September 2022 and in February 2023 Allwyn bought the firm from the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan (OTTP).
- Camelot’s long-time tech supplier, IGT, also challenged the change in contract, but its multi-billion claim was rejected in July 2023 and in January 2024 it withdrew its appeal. The firm has since rebranded as Brightstar Lottery.
- Richard Desmond. As well as claiming £1.3bn, Deesmond also claimed that a £70m marketing subsidiary issued by the Gambling Commission to National Lottery operators was unfair, but this was dismissed by the Competition Appeal Tribunal in March 2026.
Desmond threw his hat into the ring of the 2022 tender contest via TNLC, a company set up with the specific purpose of securing the National Lottery contract and managed by his publishing firm Northern & Shell.
The publishing company already had a background in lotteries as operator of The Health Lottery, and the 2022 contest represented an opportunity to expand on this in the biggest way possible for a UK lottery company.
When TNLC was ultimately unsuccessful, the subsequent legal challenge claimed that the contest was unfair.
The Commission offered to settle for £10m, but this was rejected, although Desmond did reportedly drop part of the suit in August 2025 before the whole thing was ultimately dismissed by the High Court in April 2026.
As well as rejecting Desmond’s claim for £1.3bn in damages in April 2026, the High Court also ordered his company to pay Allwyn and the Gambling Commission’s legal costs stemming from the two-year legal battle.
The removal of all legal obstructions will no doubt be a huge relief for Allwyn, which is now in the second year of its 10 year contract with the Gambling Commission to operate the National Lottery.
Since taking over the contract it has proceeded with a contractually obliged upgrade of thousands of retail lottery points of sale – albeit at a slower pace than the Gambling Commission wanted.
The firm has set an ambitious target of doubling returns to good causes from £30m a week to £60m a week by 2034. It has also launched new products, most notably making the US lottery game Powerball’s non-US debut last week.
“We can now put this behind us and focus fully on delivering for players and increasing funding for good causes,” Allwyn’s spokesperson told Lottery Daily.
A Gambling Commission spokesperson also said: “The decision gives resounding support to Good Causes by enabling Allwyn, with oversight from the Commission, to continue with their plans for 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.”