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Hello and welcome to the programme.

If we wanted to create a new revenue stream for the programme, maybe we could launch a bottom-line lottery.

Listeners would buy tickets for big prizes with most of the profits coming to the good cause of ourselves.

Well, as you can imagine, it's not quite that simple.

There are rules about who can do what with lottery-type games.

Plus, it is actually quite difficult to do it well without fraud or mishaps.

And we'd also face a giant competitor in the National Lottery run by Camelot since 1994.

For these and other reasons, we won't be launching a lottery,

but the idea raises all sorts of interesting questions,

which we're going to look at today.

Now, this is an exciting time,

because Camelot is facing a fight

for the licence to operate the National Lottery

for the decade after 2023 when their last licence expires. It's going to be an interesting decision

for the gambling commission to take between now and February. I've three guests with me, intimate with

the whole lottery game, somewhat restricted about what we can say about the bidding process. But first

up, I'm joined by Matt Ridsdale, the executive director of Camelot.

Matt, thank you for joining us.

Matt, just tell us who Camelot is these days.

So Camelot was founded in 1993 to build and launch the National Lottery in 1994, and it had four shareholders.

Cabrish Schwetz, who knew how to do the news agents,

...