Lottery chief faces scrutiny over slot-machine role and William Hill sanction

The man chosen to take temporary control of Britain’s National Lottery is stepping away from a lucrative board position at one of the country’s largest adult gaming-centre operators, after MPs challenged whether his record in the gambling industry made him an appropriate choice for the job.

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Phil Walker, the former UK and Ireland boss of William Hill, is due to become interim chief executive of Allwyn UK, which holds the National Lottery licence until 2034. His arrival follows the departure of Andria Vidler and puts an industry veteran in charge of an operation played regularly by about 20 million people and required to channel billions of pounds towards good causes.

But Walker comes to the post with baggage that has drawn attention in Westminster.

MPs challenge Walker’s appointment

Labour MP Dawn Butler and former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith have written to the Gambling Commission seeking answers about both his time at William Hill and his more recent involvement with Game Nation, the third-largest chain of adult gaming centres in Britain.

These venues, sometimes described as slot farms because of the number of machines packed inside them, have become an increasingly contentious presence on high streets. Many operate around the clock. Their expansion is precisely the kind of growth the government is now seeking to curb through tougher local powers.

Walker joined the board of City Gaming Ltd, the owner of Game Nation, last year. At the time, he presented the role as an opportunity to help expand and develop the business. Companies House filings suggest the non-executive directorship was likely to have paid him more than £50,000, despite such positions typically involving only a limited number of board meetings.

That relationship is now being put on hold. Game Nation said Walker would step back from the company from 1 September and remain away for the duration of his interim National Lottery appointment.

The timing does little to resolve the wider issue raised by Butler and Duncan Smith: whether someone recently involved in expanding 24-hour gaming centres is a suitable figure to oversee a gambling product with an unusually prominent public role.

Government turns against 24-hour gaming centres

The political direction has shifted sharply against the sector Walker joined.

Andy Burnham, before becoming prime minister, accused adult gaming centres of pursuing business among some of the most vulnerable people in local communities. This month, his government announced plans to give councils stronger powers to resist the proliferation of betting, vaping and similar premises, targeting a licensing framework that has helped gaming-centre chains expand.

Butler played a significant part in pressing Burnham to act on adult gaming centres. She and Duncan Smith have now asked the Gambling Commission to clarify whether Walker’s City Gaming directorship was considered compatible with his selection to lead the lottery.

There is another part of his record they want examined.

William Hill failures return to focus

Walker was personally sanctioned by the Gambling Commission in 2024 in connection with serious failures involving anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist-financing safeguards at William Hill. The bookmaker had been hit with a record £19.2m regulatory penalty the previous year over failings the regulator regarded as extensive and serious.

Walker did not lose his personal gambling licence. Allwyn has previously pointed to that distinction, effectively arguing that the regulator’s decision to leave the licence intact meant he remained considered fit to operate within the industry.

The MPs are seeking more detail. Their letter asks what weight, if any, the regulator gave Walker’s William Hill history when considering his suitability for his current position.

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The Gambling Commission has declined to discuss the personnel decisions of individual operators.

Allwyn backs its interim chief

For Allwyn, Walker’s appeal lies in the breadth of the experience that has now attracted political scrutiny. The company regards his background in operations, digital gambling and marketing, as well as his knowledge of the British market, as useful as it tries to expand and modernise the lottery.

The distinction between the lottery and the rest of the gambling industry matters. The National Lottery operates under its own 10-year Gambling Commission licence and occupies a peculiar place between commercial gambling and public infrastructure.

Its licence has frequently been described as Britain’s largest public-sector contract and is expected to generate about £6.5bn of revenue over the decade, while the operator is obliged to direct substantial sums to good causes.

Allwyn itself ultimately belongs to Czech billionaire Karel Komárek.

Game Nation’s high-street business

Game Nation sits in a very different corner of the market. Its owner, City Gaming, is backed by investors in a tactical-value fund operated by Wall Street bank Morgan Stanley. The chain’s business is built around the kind of high-street machine gambling now facing political resistance.

That model has also attracted scrutiny from people affected by gambling harm. Jackie Olden, whose terminally ill mother lost thousands of pounds gambling with rival adult gaming-centre operator Merkur, has challenged the idea that someone with substantial involvement in the 24-hour slots business should be entrusted with the National Lottery.

Game Nation has faced controversy of another sort.

An employment tribunal last year considered an unfair-dismissal claim from a former member of staff. Evidence submitted in the case described an extraordinary episode in which a customer who disliked the employee paid a homeless man to defecate on the premises, leaving the worker to clean it up.

The tribunal ultimately ordered Game Nation to pay the former employee £6,598.44. The award arose from a procedural problem with the dismissal rather than from that incident itself.

For a company reporting £32m in annual revenue, the financial penalty was negligible. It amounted to less than two hours of revenue.

A temporary appointment, but a wider test

Walker’s Game Nation directorship will soon be suspended, and his National Lottery job remains an interim appointment rather than a permanent one. Neither fact removes the tension now confronting Allwyn.

The company has chosen an executive with deep experience of commercial gambling at precisely the moment the government is trying to restrain one of the businesses in which he has recently been involved. The Gambling Commission, for its part, has already examined Walker once and stopped short of taking away his personal licence.

Butler and Duncan Smith are now asking whether that history was examined again before he was handed stewardship of a gambling institution that is supposed to occupy a very different place on the British high street.

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Source: theguardian.com