The Court of Appeal refused The New Lottery Company Limited (TNLC) and Northern & Shell PLC permission to appeal on 30 July, closing the last route Richard Desmond had to challenge the Gambling Commission over the fourth National Lottery licence.
The application attacked part of the High Court’s April 2026 judgment, which dismissed every claim the two companies brought against the regulator. Lord Justice Coulson dismissed all three grounds.
TNLC, the lottery vehicle Desmond set up with his publishing group Northern & Shell, bid for the 10-year licence in the 2022 competition and lost to Allwyn UK. It then claimed more than £1.3bn from the Gambling Commission, arguing the regulator had awarded the contract wrongly and that TNLC should have won. A second strand alleged the Commission and Allwyn made impermissible modifications to the licence arrangements after the bid process closed. The High Court rejected both.
What the judge ruled
Coulson LJ found that TNLC should not be permitted to raise a new legal argument at appeal stage, particularly where the point amounted to running an argument expressly ruled out in the High Court. He added that even measured against a lesser standard of proof, TNLC’s prospects of success would have been vanishingly small.
The judge also recorded that TNLC has suffered no loss in practical terms. With permission refused, Desmond has no remaining route to pursue either the regulator or Allwyn over the award.
A £40m costs bill
The defeat carries a price. The trial ran from 9 October to 2 December 2025, with an additional day in January 2026. In June the High Court ordered Northern & Shell to cover 75% of the overall costs of the trial, which City AM reported at more than £40m. Neither Northern & Shell nor TNLC commented publicly on that order.
Separately, the Competition Appeal Tribunal rejected a Desmond claim in March 2026 that a £70m marketing subsidy paid by the Gambling Commission to National Lottery operators was unfair and unlawful.
Commission response
A Gambling Commission spokesperson said:
“This is an important decision for the operation of The National Lottery and one that we welcome. The Gambling Commission ran a fair and robust competition to award the Fourth National Lottery Licence and that none of the contested changes to the Licence, in the course of its implementation, were substantial or contrary to the relevant procurement regulations.”
The regulator tied the outcome to funding rather than to the litigation itself.
“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.”
National Lottery players have raised more than £53bn for over 680,000 good causes since the game launched in 1994, according to the Commission. The regulator’s most recent market report put online gross gambling yield at £1.55bn, up 7%.
Allwyn’s response
An Allwyn spokesperson said the ruling “finally brings to an end years of litigation brought by unsuccessful applicants arising from the competition for the fourth National Lottery licence”.
“We can now put this behind us and focus fully on delivering for players and increasing funding for good causes.”
Four years of litigation
Allwyn UK, the British arm of Allwyn, won the March 2022 tender ahead of TNLC, Italy’s Sisal and incumbent Camelot. It took over operation of the National Lottery in February 2024 and holds the licence until at least 2034.
Camelot UK, which had run the lottery since 1994, challenged the award almost immediately and triggered an automatic suspension of the decision. It dropped the claim in September 2022, and Allwyn bought the business from the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan in February 2023.
International Game Technology, Camelot’s technology partner, filed a multi-billion damages claim that failed in July 2023. IGT withdrew its appeal in January 2024 after agreeing a technology partnership with Allwyn.
The delayed handover pushed back parts of Allwyn’s own delivery schedule, including a cut in the main draw ticket price to £1 and several digital upgrades. The group completed its legal relocation to Switzerland in June and reported €4.1bn in net revenue for 2025.
What happens next
Allwyn now runs the licence without a competitor claim hanging over it. Powerball launched in the UK on 21 July, the first time the US game has been offered outside its home market, and Allwyn is working towards doubling weekly returns to good causes from £30m to £60m by the end of the 10-year contract.
The regulator’s scrutiny of Allwyn’s delivery record has not gone away, and the Gambling Commission is handling it mid-transition. Chief executive Andrew Rhodes left in April, and executive director of policy and research Tim Miller departs in September. Whoever inherits National Lottery oversight does so with the courtroom risk cleared and the delivery questions still open.
Source: Gambling Commission
