Britain’s gambling watchdog has been accused of giving Czech billionaire Karel Komárek “significant assistance” in his successful bid to run the National Lottery.
Lawyers for Richard Desmond, who is suing the Gambling Commission for as much as £1.3bn [$1.7bn] over alleged mistakes in the competition to award the license, claimed the regulator told Mr Komárek’s Allwyn group that its proposed 10pc fee for running the lottery was too high.
They argue that these comments were against the rules and gave Allwyn an unfair advantage, as no other bidder received feedback on this element of their bid.
The claims emerged in a High Court hearing on Monday in a case pitting the Gambling Commission against Mr Desmond’s New Lottery Company, which had mounted an unsuccessful bid to run to National Lottery.
