The National Lottery operator Camelot has landed a hefty £1.15 Million fine. The UK Gambling Commission cited their shortcomings in governance and control. The regulating body branded the failings “sufficiently serious.” They included a failed app, and incorrect lotto results, amongst others citations. It was not the first time regulators investigated the operator. In December 2016 Camelot paid a penalty of £3 Million. Back then, the reason was that Camelot paid out a fraudulent claim of a £2.5 Million jackpot.
What went wrong
The UK Gambling Commission has published the results of its investigation on Thursday. The probe commenced in December 2016. The regulator launched the probe after many failings at the operator. They included the launch of a mobile app that turned into a real nightmare. Indeed, an app that informs, winning ticket holders with false or misleading information. Such as a losing ticket are in fact a winning one!
But the UKGC soon found out other things failed at Camelot, too. In May 2016 it had a direct debit failure. The mishap prevented the lotto sales from processing. Besides, Post Office control and security issues made the fine inevitable. In February 2017, the regulator suspended its probe. Mainly, to give Camelot time for changes. And to put in place new measures and to improve on their shortcomings. Even so, other failures emerged since the start of the investigation. They obliged the UKGC to resume and conclude the Audit.
Others sin too
In fact, this is by far not the first time Camelot had an issue with industry watchdogs. The fraudulent £2.5 Million jackpot payout cost them a £3 Million fine. And in July 2017 they got fined £300,000 for posting wrong lotto results. UKGC also obliged the operator to pay another fine three years before that. In August 2014 Camelot paid a penalty of £100,000. This time for the incorrect calculation of a jackpot prize.
To be fair to Camelot, other operators face watchdog penalties, too. ASA, the UK’s advertising standards authority, fined LottoGo twice. The first fine was for running a misleading ad. The second time was for failure to specify significant deductions from its US lottery prizes. For similar shortcomings, also Lottoland landed a £150,000 fine last year.
