£1m National Lottery Winner Takes Camelot to Court

This Winner’s Story is a Nightmare to Behold!

Imagine playing an online scratchcard and discovering you’ve landed a million quid – it’s everyone’s dream to win big, and that’s exactly what happened to Joan Parker-Grennan back in 2015, only when she logged into her National Lottery account to view her balance it was substantially less than the sum she had won.

Joan, 53, was playing the National Lottery’s £20Million Online Spectacular instant win in 2015 when the numbers revealed she had won a mega one-million-pound jackpot prize, but when she tried to claim her prize, Camelot claimed there had been a “technical” issue and that the game she was playing produced the wrong outcome. Instead of winning £1million, Camelot claim she had only won £10!

A furious Joan, a bookkeeper, was not going to take this lying down and after years of arguing with the company…

…who then later removed the scratchcard from their online casino games section, she decided there was only one thing to do – take them to court.

Multiple Errors

As crazy as this story seems, it’s not the first time Camelot have landed themselves in hot water. Last month the firm who have been running the National Lottery draws since 1994 received a fine of £3.15million from the Gambling Commission for errors which affected tens of thousands of players on its mobile app. Up to 20,000 players were told their winning tickets were losing tickets when scanning the QR code with the app’s on-board camera facility.

A second error occurred when 22,210 players bought a lottery ticket but were then subsequently charged for two. A third error resulted in customers who had opted to self-exclude via GamStop receiving marketing messages from the gambling operator. Gambling Commission chief executive

Andrew Rhodes said: “We are reassured that Camelot has taken steps to make sure that their National Lottery (mobile) app is fit for purpose. However, we must caution Camelot that any failings on their duties will be met with consequences. Today’s announcement reinforces that any operator failing to comply with their licence requirements will be investigated by the Commission and we will not hesitate to issue fines if requirements are breached.”

Camelot accepted the charges and the fine and expressed these were “historical incidents.” A spokesman continued: “We are sorry that some of our controls fell short of the mark in certain very specific circumstances and have paid the fine. We always strive to operate The National Lottery to the highest possible standards and, given its scale and complexity, we’re proud of our track record of running The National Lottery with extremely high levels of integrity.”

“We welcome the Gambling Commission’s recognition that, as soon as the issues became known to us, we reported them and acted promptly to resolve them. We’re also pleased that the commission makes clear that we did not act negligently, and that there was no negative impact on returns to Good Causes or financial benefit to Camelot.”

Instant Win Horror

After Joan launched her legal claim in 2021 there has been no offer of settlement from the gambling operator and now her lawyers are set to take Camelot to the High Court. Solicitors acting on behalf of Joan have given the company numerous attempts to resolve this issue with the winner vowing to even accept a lesser sum of £900K then £800K or £300K less than her winnings - £700K, but Camelot are having none of it.

Within a day of her being informed of her £1million jackpot win, the scratchcard game had been removed from the website. Her case will go to the High Court (in June) as a claim for “monies due under the terms of a consumer contract between the parties and/or damages for breach of a consumer contract”.

According to the instant win merchant, Joan wasn’t the only customer affected by the £20Million Online Spectacular game and that errors were produced due to the software behaving “erroneously” during Joan’s “win.” To win a prize on this particular (removed) game, customers must match numbers on the top row to those listed below. The prize they win will then be displayed beneath a matching number. Joan had two matching numbers: 15 for £10 and the number 1 for £1MIL.

The Competition Heats Up

The license for Camelot to operate National Lottery games is to expire in 2024 and there is fierce competition as to who will take over. On March 15^th the Gambling Commission named Allwyn Entertainment Ltd, a multi-national lottery operator in Austria, the Czech Republic, Greece, Cyprus, and Italy as the “preferred applicant” for the third license as they are expected to “deliver growth and innovation.”

Fast forward to April 1^st and an update on the running for the National Lottery license sees Allwyn Entertainment Ltd announced as the preferred applicant for the fourth National Lottery license. Only Camelot are not taking this lying down. The Commission received legal proceedings in relation to the competition process and are doing their utmost to stop the license passing to another gambling operator’s hands.

A statement by the Gambling Commission said: “The competition and our evaluation have been carried out fairly and lawfully in accordance with our statutory duties, and we are confident that a court would come to that conclusion. Our priority is to continue to work to implement our decision and ensure a seamless and timely transition to the next licence, for the benefit of participants and good causes. These proceedings will not help that but we trust that Camelot will honour its obligations as the current licensee to cooperate in that transition, and we will continue to use the tools available to us to facilitate that process.”

Source: “Devastated Woman Takes Camelot to Court After Form Refuses to Pay £1m Jackpot”. Gambling Commission. April 2, 2022.