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 first began in 1993 and was supported by shareholders like Cadbury Schweppes, Thales Electronics plc, Fujitsu Services Ltd., Royal Mail Enterprises Ltd., and De La Rue Holdings plc. GTECH was also a shareholder, but it was bought out following complications that affected the bidding. Executives like Tim Holley were put in charge of Camelot being promised large bonuses. When the Labor government took note of the massive amounts of money being made by executives in Camelot, it became a bit of an embarrassment to the company.

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.

Things changed when Dame Helena, the National Lottery Commission chair, told that both the companies did not meet the things needed to operate the lottery. Nonetheless, the National Lottery Commission, made all attempts to give the People’s Lottery the chance to operate the lottery. Considering the unfairness, Camelot filed a case again the National Lottery Commission. The High Court decided in favor of the Camelot and declared the Commission’s verdict as “noticeably unfair”. The National Lottery on the other hand, fired the Treasury team, which had taken the decision.

The bidding again reopened later, and Camelot was awarded the bid by 4-1. The shareholders of the company are still the same today, with the exception of the bought-out GTECH. It now operates the UK’s biggest lottery franchise and raises funds for different reasons. This big lottery game is called as the Lotto. Most of their lottery games take place through the ‘scratch cards’ and they choose 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 since run the UK lottery franchise well and it has flourished. After sales started decreasing they started a new campaign came out with lower costs. This is when the many lottery game was changed to the Lotto, and since more people have started participating. In a recent campaign, one of the lottery games raises money for the Olympics and the Paralympics to be held in the year 2012.