Camelot gambles on ‘daily’ draws

Operator risks outcry with its plans to introduce daily Lottery draws alongside existing weekly games

Camelot is planning to run daily draws for the National Lottery to operate alongside its two weekly draws, in a move which is likely to outrage the anti-gambling lobby.

The operator will approach National Lottery regulator Peter Davis to seek permission to run the daily draws in 1999.

It is understood the daily game will be strongly themed to differentiate it from the Saturday and Wednesday draws. There could be a total of more than eight National Lottery draws running each week.

But the news comes just as a rival online game, Pronto!, is launched this week in London by Inter Lotto, with draws every few minutes. The Government says it will outlaw rapidly-repeating lotteries, as it is worried about the implications of such games for problem gambling. Camelot’s plans for daily draws could face similar criticisms.

Meanwhile, Camelot is understood to have applied to regulator Oflot to run a game in conjunction with pools company Vernons under a “section 6 licence”. Oflot says it is “considering an application”.

It will be the first time a National Lottery game has been run by a separate company – Vernons will be responsible for sales and marketing and raising funds for the National Lottery Distribution Fund, which gives money to the five good causes.

A number of London advertising agencies have been briefed to devise creative ideas for the Vernons National Lottery launch, which is expected to coincide either with next year’s football World Cup finals in France or the beginning of the next football season in August.

The launch has been delayed – it was originally to start early next year, which has now been earmarked for the launch of the National Lottery game show.

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