The media tycoon Richard Desmond has vowed to attraction after a powerful defeat in his declare for as much as £1.3bn in damages from the Gambling Commission over its determination to not award him the 10-year licence to run the national lottery.
Mrs Justice Smith dismissed Desmond’s declare on Friday, in a generally scathing written excessive court docket judgment that reserved explicit criticism for “inexcusable” failings on the a part of Desmond’s authorized workforce.
Companies owned by the previous proprietor of the Daily Express and Channel 5 launched motion in opposition to the playing regulator in 2022, beginning a tortuous authorized course of wherein Desmond’s prices had been estimated to have reached £55m by May final 12 months. Sources near Desmond stated the determine was considerably decrease.
Lawyers for his Northern & Shell funding firm and his lottery bid automobile, the New Lottery Company, had argued that the fee made “manifest errors” within the labyrinthine course of governing the UK’s largest public sector contract, price £6.5bn.
The media mogul claimed the fee’s errors induced him to incur £17.5m of pointless prices in pursuing his bid. However, he was additionally looking for as much as £1.3bn in damages to replicate hypothetical misplaced earnings from operating the lottery.
Allwyn, a brand new automobile in the end owned by the Czech billionaire Karel Komárek, won the 10-year licence in 2022 and has run the draw since 2024.
On Friday, Mrs Justice Smith dismissed Desmond’s declare fully.
“The claimants have failed to make out any case of manifest error on the part of the commission in their process claim,” she wrote.
“They have also failed to establish that either [previous licence holder] Camelot or Allwyn should have been disqualified from the competition, whether by reason of incumbency advantage (Camelot) or conflict of interest (Allwyn).
“The competition that was conducted for the award of the fourth licence reached a lawful outcome.”
A spokesperson for Northern & Shell stated: “They won. We lost. We appeal. It’s not over.”
Dubai-based Desmond – who additionally used to personal the Daily Star, OK! journal, Asian Babes and Readers’ Wives – launched a sequence of authorized challenges linked to the lottery determination, at one stage rejecting a £10m settlement offer.
The former Tory donor and Brexit backer, who invoked EU law in his go well with, claimed that the regulator presided over a flawed course of that ought to have been rerun.
He urged the court docket to “err on the side of generosity” in assessing his declare for as much as £1.3bn in damages, which might most likely have been funded from the pot of lottery cash allotted to good causes.
In her judgment, Mrs Justice Smith took goal on the “unfocused” approach wherein Desmond’s declare was carried out, with numerous components of his argument being dropped on the final minute.
“The extent of this movable feast was regrettable and (given the legal resources available to the claimants) inexcusable,” she wrote.
“It led to significant time being wasted by the other parties in dealing with issues which were subsequently abandoned. It also risked leaving the court with an imperfect understanding of how the case was being advanced.
“To describe this as surprising, given the nature and alleged value of this claim, would be an understatement.”
A spokesperson for the Gambling Commission stated: “This judgment makes clear that 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 judgment gives resounding support to good causes by enabling Allwyn, with oversight from the commission, to continue with their plans of 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.”
Allwyn stated the choice “draws a line under a long-running series of allegations about the integrity of the competition process, many of which were withdrawn during the proceedings, with the remainder rejected by the court”.
Desmond beforehand failed with a separate declare that Allwyn had acquired an illegal £70m advertising subsidy from the Gambling Commission.
