The UK lottery is currently operated by the Camelot Group plc. Every eight years a bid is opened to see what company will run the national lottery. This process is overseen by the National Lottery Commission, an organization not related to the British government, which also oversees fair treatment of players.

Camelot came into being in 1993. It had several shareholders such as Thales Electronics plc, Cadbury Schweppes, Fujitsu Services Ltd., De La Rue Holdings plc, and Royal Mail Enterprises Ltd. GTECH was one of the shareholders, however it was later bought-out after an issue which that affected the bid. Their executives such as Tim Holley were held in charge of Camelot unfairly getting large bonuses. When the case was taken to Labor government, and it found out about the loopholes and the way the executives in Camelot were making money, it became a very big embarrassment for Camelot.

Camelot again decided to bid for the national lottery in 2001. The People’s Lottery, one of their rivals was sure that they would be the winner after the problem with GTECH. It was later discovered that the lottery terminals, made by the GTECH had a technical fault, which made them allot the incorrect quantity of winnings. GTECH sold off their shares, and Camelot then kept up its biddings.

After some time, Dame Helena, the chairperson of the National Lottery Commission, said that both the companies did not fulfill the criteria to operate the lottery. Even after this, the National Lottery Commission attempted to unfairly give the UK lottery company to the People’s Lottery. Camelot complained against such injustice and took the Commission to court. The High Court found the commission as unfair and awarded the case in favor of Camelot. The National Lottery Commission sacked their Treasury team, which that made this deal.

When the bidding opened again, Camelot won by 4-1. The shareholders of Camelot were as before, with just the exception of the GTECH, which was bought-out. The company is presently operating the largest franchise of lottery in UK; and do fund raising for different good causes. The biggest lottery game in UK is famous as Lotto, and most of their lottery games use the method of ‘scratch cards’ and ‘choosing the number’ games.

The money raised by the UK lottery is divided into several different categories. Most of the money for every pound spent goes to the prize money (50p) or various good causes (28p). 12p goes to the British government and 5p goes to the people who well the lottery tickets and such. Camelot takes in 5p per pound, using 4.5 of it to cover their costs and saving 0.5 for their own profit.

Camelot has successfully operated the UK lottery franchise, and it has thrived under it. When sales started declining, they came up with a new campaign with lowered costs. This is the time when several lottery games were changed to the Lotto. After that, the sales again picked momentum. They recently run a campaign, where one of the lottery games was intended to raise funds for the 2012, Olympics and the Paralympics.