Progression of the lottery's gross gambling yield

Request

I am looking to do a long time chart of the progression of the lottery's gross gambling yield as well as the other forms ofgambling over the long term.

Your website currently has the data from April 2008 onwards - do you have the historic data for all since the lottery's inception please?

Response

Thank you for your request which has been processed under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

In your email you have requested historic gross gambling yield data since the National Lottery's inception.

The UK National Lottery, launched in 1994, is regulated by the Gambling Commission and is operated by Allwyn Entertainment, who took over from Camelot Group (who had been running The National Lottery since its inception) on 1 February 2024.

I can confirm that some information in the scope of your request is held by the Gambling Commission. However, this information is not held in an easily extractable format. A large volume of reports from over thirty years would need to be reviewed manually in order to identify the information you’re requesting.

Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) makes provision for public authorities to refuse requests for information where the cost of dealing with them would exceed the appropriate limit, which for public authorities, such as the Commission, is set at £450. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 18 hours in determining whether the department holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting the information.   

We estimate, in order to identify, locate and retrieve the information relating to the above request, it would take in excess of 18 hours to determine appropriate material and locate, retrieve and extract any relevant information in reference to your request. When a public authority applies the Section 12 exemption to a request, the FOIA guidance specifically states that a public authority should avoid providing any information found as a result of a search as it denies the requestor the right to express a preference as to which parts of the request they may wish to receive within the appropriate time limit.

We estimate that we could generate data dating back to at least 2003 within the time limit. If you are able to refine your request, we may be able to provide some data by working up to the time limit.

Until we are able to process the search of the information you have requested, we are unable to ascertain if other exemptions will apply to any material identified which would also prevent disclosure.

Please note, any refined request would be processed as a new request and the 20 working day statutory time limit would apply.

Review of the decision

If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your Freedom of Information request you are entitled to an internal review of our decision. You should write to FOI Team, Gambling Commission, 4th floor, Victoria Square House, Victoria Square, Birmingham, B2 4BP or by reply to this email. 

Please note, internal review requests should be made within 40 working days of the initial response. Requests made outside this timeframe will not be processed.

If you are not content with the outcome of our review, you may then apply directly to the Information Commissioner (ICO) for a decision. Generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have already exhausted the review procedure provided by the Gambling Commission. 

It should be noted that if you wish to raise a complaint with the ICO about the Commission’s handling of your request for information, then you are required to do so within six weeks of receiving your final response or last substantive contact with us.

The ICO can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office (opens in a new tab), Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Information Management Team
Gambling Commission