National Lottery sale approved

After months of speculation in the lottery news, the sale of the National Lottery to the Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan has finally been approved by the Lottery Commission and can go ahead. At present five major companies each own a 20% share in the company who run the UK Lotto and UK branch of the Euromillions Lottery but the entire company is to he sold to the highest bidders, the Ontario Teacher’s Pension plan.

The bid was accepted in late March but of course there is so much bureaucracy regarding any sale this big and the whole sale had to first be approved by the Lottery Commission. This happened last week and now the transfer of the company from the five main shareholders to the Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan can go ahead.

What this will mean for the UK Lotto, no one yet knows, however the lottery company is highly regulated by the UK government so any changes do have to be approved by companies such as the Lottery Commission but it is possible there will still be changes. Funds good causes are likely to grow at the same rate as they are now and they are growing all the time, for example another £50 million a year has been promised for Sport from 2012.

It’s nothing that lottery players need yet worry about and you can continue to buy lottery tickets as usual as the sale is being completed. You can also guarantee that if there is any further news on the sale or changes to the National Lottery you can read about them here on our lottery news pages.
 

Article Last Updated: 13th July 2010

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