UK Gambling Commission lottery document blunder gets worse

The UK’s Gambling Commission has failed to block Northern and Shell’s The New Lottery Company from using documents it accidentally sent over to opposing lawyers. This will allow The New Lottery Company to use what would have been privileged documents in its arguments in court.

The Gambling Commission has accidentally made known over 4000 documents, with 128 disputed in court. Justice Jefford has now slammed the hammer and said that it’s fair game. Originally, it was thought that the UK’s Gambling Commission had only sent 35, but it was uncovered that 4,321 were sent in a massive blunder.

Justice Jefford said in the ruling:

“By 18 December, there was a warning that there might be more to come and a warning to [claimant’s solicitors] BCLP to be alert to the same possibility.

“The reasonable solicitor is entitled to take into account the character of the firm giving disclosure and the manner in which disclosure has been given.

“A sophisticated exercise undertaken by a highly experienced firm would not be expected to result in inadvertent disclosure of privileged documents.

“In my judgment, the issue that the court is concerned with is whether it should have been obvious to a reasonable solicitor carrying out a proper disclosure review that the document had been inadvertently disclosed.”

The lawsuit comes as it’s alleged that the Gambling Commission had not done its job properly surrounding the licensing of the National Lottery to Allwyn Entertainment. Northern and Shell’s The New Lottery Company has called foul on the £6.5 billion deal, with breaches of procurement law, and is calling out additional modifications to the overall agreement.

Allwyn’s license will act like any other in the UK and last a decade, with this being the fourth. The company took over the lottery on February 1, and it is the first time it’s changed hands in 30 years.

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