Judge throws out Richard Desmond’s billion-pound lottery case

Media tycoon Richard Desmond has lost his billion-pound legal battle against the Gambling Commission over the 2022 National Lottery license.

Desmond’s group, Northern and Shell, and its subsidiary, the New Lottery Company, launched a £1.3bn legal action against the Gambling Commission after it awarded the next licence to Czech gambling group Allwyn.

The procurement competition for this licence resulted in multiple litigations against the regulator, including one by the previous holder, Camelot, which was later withdrawn.

Desmond’s group’s lawsuit against the Commission kicked off at the High Court last October, with his lawyers at BCLP making several allegations, including that the Commission committed several regulatory breaches.

While the Commission’s lawyers at Hogan Lovells said Desmond’s group, the New Lottery Company, had failed to meet the mandatory standards in its application.

However, in a 500-page judgment handed down on Friday, Mrs Justice Joanna Smith dismissed the remainder of its claims in full.

She found that during the procurement process, Northern & Shell had been properly disqualified from the competition for “failing over half” of the 23 “different mandatory requirements” necessary for its bid to be considered, that there was an “enormous gap” of over 30 per cent in scores between its bid and Allwyn’s bid.

As a result, the licence had therefore been fairly and properly awarded by the Commission to Allwyn.

Addressing Desmond’s group’s claims for £1.3bn damages, the judge held that they had suffered no loss because it is “fanciful to suppose that TNLC would have won” any competition against Allwyn, the “world leader in conducting lotteries”.

A hearing on costs and other consequential issues has now been listed for Friday, 22 May.

Commenting on the ruling, Quinn Emanuel partner, Dominic Roughton, representing third-party Allwyn, said, “Mrs Justice Joanna Smith’s judgment is a resounding victory and a complete vindication of Allwyn….Allwyn can now focus on delivering their bid and vision for the National Lottery, free of the distraction and disruption that 4 years of litigation have brought.”