It couldn't be you: both lottery bids rejected

NEWS Camelot's bid to keep the franchise for the UK National Lottery has been rejected because of grave concerns over its software provider. A spokesman for the National Lottery Commission confirmed that it was concerned with the behaviour of Camelot consortium member, Gtech, in relation to a software fault in the lottery system from the start of the lottery until 1998. Surprisingly, Camelot's rival, the Richard Branson backed People's Lottery, was also rejected. That consortium, which includes suppliers such as Cisco, Compaq, Energis and Microsoft, could not convince the Commission of its financial stability and has been given a month to resubmit its bid. No other bids have been received by the Commission and the spokesman said that if the People's Lottery proposal was still not acceptable, it would have to consult with the UK Government over the future of the National Lottery.