THE crisis over the future operation of the National Lottery continued to develop last night as Camelot stepped up the stakes by putting more money into good causes, and calls were made for further resignations - not least that of Culture Secretary Chris Smith.
The furore has continued to develop following a court ruling which has made it clear that the whole relicensing process is in a mess caused by the National Lottery Commission itself.
Last night, Camelot indicated that, while the resignation of Dame Helena Shovelton from her position as chairman of the commission was a step in the right direction, it would not be upset if additional heads were to fall.
Shadow Culture Secretary Peter Ainsworth accused the Government in general and Mr Smith in particular of getting the facts completely wrong.
''Chris Smith is in an exposed position because he actually welcomed the decision of the commission to kick Camelot out of the competition,'' he said on BBC's Today programme.
While the whole process of issuing a fresh licence to run the game from October next year seemed to be in complete chaos last night, Camelot insisted that it would do everything in its power to ensure there was no interruption over any takeover.
However, with further lawsuits now threatened, and Camelot saying it could continue to run the lottery for only a limited period after its current licence expires, there were grave doubts over whether agreement could be reached in time to prevent a suspension of the lottery.
Culture Minister Alan Howarth yesterday insisted that, despite the chaos surrounding the licence, a new contract could still be awarded in time for an operator to be in place by next October's deadline.
Backing up its claim to continue as operators of the lottery, Camelot yesterday promised an additional #500m towards good causes.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article