Camelot tops-up terminal plans

LOTTERY operator Camelot has tweaked a plan to let consumers buy mobile top-up cards or pay bills on its terminals in an effort to win over sceptical regulators.

Last month, the National Lottery Commission (NLC) provisionally rejected the proposals on the grounds that it might breach European Union or competition law. But yesterday the regulator extended the public consultation process on the plan by two weeks, Camelot said.

Approval of the firm's proposals would create a new force in the bill payment market, competing with the likes of London-listed electronic payment firm PayPoint, which has strongly opposed Camelot's plans. The lottery operator said it believed the NLC's decision was "flawed and contained legal errors", but wanted to address the concerns to get the project off the ground.

Camelot outlined a raft of measures it hopes will reverse the NLC's decision, including a commitment to full transparency, such as publishing separate accounts for the new business and employing a competition law officer to police the service.

Camelot said: "We're going to give service providers, retailers and consumers more choice, better service and attractive prices and, at the same time, give back over 80 per cent of our profits to the good causes."

Previously, the lottery watchdog said the risks to competition outweighed the "relatively small" returns that would be generated for charities and good causes, estimating the proposed additional services would raise 5 million a year.

In March, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan agreed to buy Camelot for 389m from its five main shareholders, Cadbury, Thales, Fujitsu, De La Rue and Royal Mail Group.