It’s an £ 80 billion contract. However, no one is really talking about the current competition (all offers have been submitted) for the fourth license of the National Lottery. Almost all independent retailers even know it’s up for grabs, for example, not to mention the stakes.

This is because the Gambling Commission has kept the process a secret. No one is allowed to talk about the details of their offers: what is the offer; why it could be better than Camelot’s. Even so, for all listed partners, this is an advertable event. As a candidate, you don’t even need to declare your interest.

The Gambling Commission has a form in this regard. In its previous form, as the Office of the National Lottery (OFLOT), its decision to award the original lottery contract in 1994 was shrouded in secrecy. Popular sentiment had suggested that Richard Branson’s promise to run the break-even lottery would prevail. Instead, the state-franchised lottery was awarded to the Camelot consortium, which then sold it to a Canadian pension fund a year after winning the third license.

The offers for the second and third licenses were even more obscure, if they were even offers, with so-called rivals seemingly acting as stalking horses to keep Camelot honest.

Yet change is coming. The assimilation of the National Lottery Commission to the Gaming Commission already shows a change of direction. Instead of remaining isolated, he recognizes that participating in the lottery is still a form of gambling, even if the money goes to good causes.

And with the lottery market share at just 22%, the smallest of any developed country in the world – and contributing just £ 3.5bn to the so-called gross gambling return, up from 5.5 billion pounds from faster growing online games. operators – the word on the street is that this is the most ‘open’ contest ever, knowing that if bettors are going to play, the state-run lottery had better have the most big part of the price. It is a license for the lottery to become more creative and go more digital. If a bidder can do all of this while keeping the retailers on the side, that could be the winning ticket.