Christmas Superdraw Advertising

Background
The Section 6 licence for Lotto allows Camelot to offer Superdraws.  A Superdraw is a draw that offers a top prize in excess of the amount that would ordinarily be generated through sales subject to National Lottery Commission approval.  Approval was given for a Lotto Superdraw on 24 December 2004.

Condition
Condition 9(31) of the the licence granted under Section 5 of the National Lottery etc Act 1993 (as amended).

Description
An advertisement appeared on numerous websites for the Christmas Lotto Superdraw which stated that the guaranteed jackpot was £2.9m rather than the correct figure of £15m.  The  advertisement appeared between approximately 13.00 and 19.00 on 22 December 2004.  During this time in excess of 4 million impressions were made on the Internet.
The error was due to  the fact that Camelot’s media agency incorrectly drew on the figure for the Wednesday Lotto draw on 22 December rather than the figure for the Christmas Lotto Superdraw on 24 December 2004. 

Camelot reported the incident to the Commission.

Regulatory Action
The Commission considered the issue and wrote to Camelot. In considering Camelot’s response the Commission acknowledged that the error was due to a misunderstanding by an external agency, but decided to record a licence breach as it is Camelot’s responsibility to ensure compliance with its licence, and this includes the actions of its contractors. The breach was recorded on 20 April 2005.

Outcome
Camelot has changed its procedure to require a member of staff to sign off that the correct jackpot figure has been used.