After reading Michael Outama’s complaint about Camelot giving a newcomer next door the lottery (C-Store, 2 November), Guy Pollington took great exception to Camelot’s response that its “overarching objective is to raise as much money as possible for good causes”.

Guy, who trades at Walton-on-Thames in Surrey, says: “Last December, I was requested to put on a large amount of lottery tickets for a player whom Camelot was fully aware of, to play the main draw. The player had passed all the security checks and even placed monies directly into Camelot’s account before the draw was even made! By doing this they had secured a huge sum for the good causes as well as welcome commission for myself.”

(The customer, a well-known wealthy investor, had wanted to bet £50k last year; Camelot allowed only £8k.)

“But when the player recently approached me to do a repeat, Camelot’s stance was different and cost the good causes many thousands of pounds. So much for their ‘overarching objective’.”

A Camelot spokesman confirmed that it had recently changed its policy. He said: “We aim to ensure that The National Lottery is operated in a socially responsible way, with lots of people playing, but spending relatively small amounts. For that reason, we concluded that the purchase of unusually high numbers of entries, in specific National Lottery draws, by an individual, or small group of individuals - irrespective of their personal financial circumstances - is not consistent with that objective.”

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