Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of UK sanctions relating to Russia on the Gambling Commission's decision to award Allwyn Entertainment as the preferred operator to run the National Lottery from 2024; and if she will make a statement.

The competition to award the licence to operate the 4th National Lottery licence (4NL) is run by the Gambling Commission. The National Lottery Act 1993 stipulates that the Commission can only grant a licence to operate the National Lottery if it is satisfied that the proposed licensee is a fit and proper person. In this context, the Commission carried out appropriate vetting checks on all the applicants to the 4NL competition and is now carrying out further vetting checks on Allwyn as the Commission’s preferred applicant to operate 4NL. The Commission does not have any plans at present to list the names of those individuals subject to vetting checks.

The Gambling Commission has taken steps to assure itself that no applicant to the 4NL competition is or is likely to be impacted by the sanctioning of entities and individuals listed in the Consolidated List of Financial Sanctions Targets in the UK.