06 January 2024 , 19:36
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A Czech billionaire’s gambling firm donated £20,000 to the Tories just a year after winning a controversial battle to run the UK’s National Lottery.
The Gambling Commission, a government body, handed the licence to run the Lottery to Allwyn, Europe’s biggest lottery operator, in March 2022. The bitter competition had been plagued by months of legal wrangling - but Allwyn will finally take over the licence from next month.
The firm, previously known as Sazka before rebranding during the bidding process, pledged to double charitable donations to £38billion over the next decade and to slash ticket prices to £1. And in November last year, they made a donation worth £20,000 to the 1922 Committee, the Conservative Party ’s parliamentary association.
Allwyn is owned by 53-year-old oil tycoon Karel Komarek, who has previously faced questions over his links with Russian-state energy giant Gazprom.
His company MND launched a joint venture with Gazprom in 2016 to build an underground gas storage facility in the Czech Republic. But Mr Komarek has since publicly condemned Russia ’s invasion of Ukraine. And in November, MND bought out most of Gazprom’s stake in the venture - which Russia had stopped using for gas storage at around the time of the invasion.
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After the decision was made to hand the lottery licence to Allwyn, previous holders Camelot launched legal proceedings claiming the Commission had got the decision “badly wrong” - holding the handover process up for months. After winning the licence, Allwyn bought Camelot for £100 million.
A spokesperson for the Departure for Culture, Media and Sport said: "The Gambling Commission ran an open, fair and rigorous competition, independently of government, for the National Lottery licence. DCMS Ministers were not involved in the licence decision. Allwyn has a strong track record of transforming lotteries and we are delighted they have chosen to bring their expertise and ambition to the UK."
A Conservative Party spokesperson said: “Donations to the Conservative Party are properly and transparently declared to the Electoral Commission, openly published by them, and comply fully with the law.”