Gambling Commission fines Camelot £300,000 for displaying inaccurate lotto results

This follows the publication of inaccurate Lotto Millionaire Raffle results on the National Lottery website for an hour and over 100,000 people viewing them. The error occurred on 10 October 2015.

The commission’s investigations into this error found that Camelot had breached the terms of its operating licence in two key respects: that processes and procedures were not fit for purpose and that players were misled.

Commission executive director Sarah Gardner said: “It is essential that the public can have confidence in how the National Lottery is run. Camelot’s failures on this occasion resulted in a significant number of National Lottery players being misled and so put at risk that public confidence.

“When errors occur, it is essential that the interests of players are put first and we will not hesitate to use our enforcement powers to take the necessary action to make requirements clear and to deter the likelihood of future incidents.”

Two other similar incidents were also recorded as breaches but no additional sanction imposed, given their low impact. These concerned an incorrect jackpot advert published on EuroMillions results checker in November 2015 and inaccurate information about the Raffle prize tier in December 2015.

Daniel Dyball, head of policy and regulatory affairs at Camelot, said: “We absolutely accept that we made a mistake in each of the cases and are very sorry that they happened. We therefore accept that licence breaches occurred and, in the one case in which a financial penalty was imposed, have paid it.

“Public confidence in The National Lottery is of paramount importance and we believe our outstanding operational record over the last 22 years underlines how seriously we take our responsibilities to players.

“The incidents, which took place back in 2015 and were caused by human error, were quickly identified and promptly fixed. We also took immediate action to communicate the correct results and to strengthen our internal processes to minimise the chances of these specific issues happening again.

“Returns to National Lottery Good Causes were not adversely affected by any of the incidents and Camelot did not benefit financially as a result of the errors.”