Gambling Commission Launches 4th National Lottery Licence Competition

The Gambling Commission is most often in the news for their work in controlling and regulating the land-based and online gambling sector in the United Kingdom. However, they are also the statutory body responsible for managing the licencing process for the country’s National Lottery.

When it comes to managing the National Lottery licence holder and ensuring fair play, they have 3 key duties:

1. Ensuring the National Lottery is run with propriety
2. Ensuring that participants’ interests are protected
3. Ensuring the proceeds from the National Lottery are as great as possible

In line with these duties, they announced the launch of the competition to award the fourth National Lottery licence since 1994.

 Why the National Lottery Licence Matters?

For the most part, the National Lottery is considered a “what’s in it for me” activity, as is the case with most forms of gambling. However, it is a little known fact that in the United Kingdom the National Lottery plays a key role in providing much-needed funding for the arts, sport, heritage, and at-risk communities.

Minister for Sports, Tourism and Heritage Nigel Huddleston said:

"The National Lottery has a positive impact on communities right across the UK, supporting thousands of good causes as well as the sectors that brighten up our lives including the arts, culture, heritage and sport. Most importantly it will help raise billions more pounds to benefit people's lives in villages, towns and cities throughout the country."

Since its inception in 1994, the National Lottery has raised in excess of £41 billion in support of more than 565,000 charities and community causes.

 Securing the Future of the National Lottery

The Commission has made some changes to the fourth lottery licence which it believes will allow the licence holder to create an even more stable platform for themselves and reach new heights in terms of revenue generation without sacrificing fair play and value for lottery players.

In their recent press release, the Commission listed the following noteworthy changes to this latest licence:

• A fixed 10-year licence: A fixed term means that the licensee has a clear period for investment planning.
• Focusing on performance: Building on the National Lottery’s success to-date, the new licence will provide greater flexibility to maximise returns to good causes, hand in hand with ensuring safe and fair play.
• Incentive mechanism: A new incentive mechanism will ensure the licensee’s incentives and delivery are closely aligned with returns to good causes
• Protecting the brand: The licensee will be required to foster stronger relationships with the distributors of National Lottery funding to further strengthen the link between the National Lottery brand, its players, and good causes.

When explaining the reasoning behind these changes to the new National Lottery licence Neil McArthur, Gambling Commission Chief Executive, said:

“For the fourth licence, we will be evolving our approach to regulation to build on the National Lottery’s huge successes. In line with our outcomes-focussed approach to regulation, we want the next licensee to have greater autonomy to meet the needs of players in 2023 and beyond, whilst ensuring there is clear accountability for the performance of the National Lottery.”

The application process to win the fourth National Lottery licence opened on August 28th with the preferred applicant being announced September 2021.