Unclaimed £20,000 Lotto Raffle prizes between 3rd April 2014 and 3rd April 2015
Dear Gambling Commission,
Please could you tell me how many £20,000 Lotto Raffle prizes went unclaimed between Thursday the 3rd of April 2014 and Friday the 3rd of April 2015?
Please note that this is my third attempt at obtaining this information from the Gambling Commission. This request is not open to your interpretation, neither do I require you to attempt to justify the high number of unclaimed prizes.
I specifically request the number of unclaimed £20,000 Lotto Raffle prizes between 03/04/2014 and 03/04/2015.
If you fail to deliver the information I have requested, I will interpret this as wilful obstruction to what should be freely available data and will have no other option than to report this matter to the ICO.
Thank you very much for your time.
Yours faithfully,
Chester J. Lampwick
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Information Management Team
Gambling Commission
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Case: 202300155
Dear Sir/Madam
Thank you for your request for information which we are processing as a
request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
We aim to deal with all requests promptly and in any event, no later than
20 working days in line with the statutory requirement. In this case 4
March 2024.
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Case: 202300155
Dear Mr J Lampwick
Thank you for your further Freedom of Information Request.
I must refer to the internal review response the Commission sent to you on
22 November 2023.
Your request was interpreted as being for how many £20,000 Lotto Raffle
prizes were registered as unclaimed during the period April 2014 and April
2015. We therefore provided data from draws between 05/10/2013 and
01/11/2014 (180 days before the respective dates in the request. This date
range would have captured Raffle prizes which were registered as unclaimed
during the period April 2014 and April 2015
As you are aware, we uphold the decision that all information held by the
Gambling Commission falling within the scope of your request was provided
in the first instance.
However, if the request is for all unclaimed prizes related to draws which
took place between April 2014 and April 2015 then we will be happy to
fulfil that as a new request under the FOIA.
Should you wish this to be processed as an additional request under the
FOIA, please advise as such. This request will represent a new request for
information and the new 20 working day time limit will commence from the
day after your request is received.
I hope this information is of some assistance to you.
Kind Regards,
Information Management Team
Gambling Commission
Victoria Square House
Victoria Square
Birmingham B2 4BP
Case: 202300155
Dear Mr J Lampwick,
I am emailing to follow up on our recent correspondence, in relation to
your recent Freedom of Information Request submitted after the
Commission's internal review response sent to you on 22 November 2023.
As previously mentioned, your request was interpreted as being for how
many £20,000 Lotto Raffle prizes were registered as unclaimed during the
period April 2014 and April 2015. We therefore provided data from draws
between 05/10/2013 and 01/11/2014 (180 days before the respective dates in
the request. This date range would have captured Raffle prizes which were
registered as unclaimed during the period April 2014 and April 2015.
As you are aware, we uphold the decision that all information held by the
Gambling Commission falling within the scope of your request was provided
in the first instance.
However, if we have misunderstood and your request is for all unclaimed
prizes related to draws which took place between April 2014 and April
2015, then we will be happy to fulfil that as a new request under the
FOIA.
Should you wish this to be processed as an additional request under the
FOIA, please advise as such. This request will represent a new request for
information and the new 20 working day time limit will commence from the
day after your request is received.
If we do not receive a response by 29th April your request will be
considered as closed.
If you have any queries about this email, please contact us.
Information Management Team
Gambling Commission
Victoria Square House
Victoria Square
Birmingham B2 4BP
Dear Gambling Commission,
Thank you very much for your kind offer for me to waste both mine and your time by submitting another FOI request, unfortunately you have already provided me with the total number of unclaimed lottery prizes for the year in question.
I find it difficult to believe that you, the regulatory body of the National Lottery are being so obstinate in providing me with the number of unclaimed £20,000 Lotto Raffle prizes between two dates.
You have also tried to justify the high number of unclaimed £20,000 Lotto Raffle prizes when it is not your position to do so.
What point is it in giving me the number of unclaimed £20,000 Lotto Raffle prizes between October 2013 and November 2014, when the £20,000 Lotto Raffle prize was only introduced in October 2013?
This means that unclaimed £20,000 Lotto Raffle prizes for the first 180 days from October 2013 will be ZERO.
What you have done is effectively given me 180 days of nothing and 180 days of the data I requested.
Quote response from Gambling Commission;
During this period, a total of 1,219 £20,000 Lotto Raffle prizes went unclaimed. However, this is in the context of a very high number of £20,000 Lotto Raffle prizes (up to 1,000 in particular draws) being offered during the same period.
end quote.
If 1,219 £20,000 Lotto Raffle prizes went unclaimed in the 180 days between April 2014 and November 2014 then how many went unclaimed between April 2014 and April 2015? It's quite obvious there will be many more unclaimed £20,000 Lotto Raffle prizes in the run-up to Christmas and the New Year.
1,219 x £20,000 = £24,380,000. That equates to over £4m a month being unclaimed.
Seeing as you appear incapable or unwilling to provide the data I have asked for so I am going to request an internal review and report this wilful obstruction to what should be freely available data to provide data to the ICO.
Thank you very much for your time.
Yours faithfully,
Chester J. Lampwick
Thank you for contacting the Gambling Commission.
This inbox is for requests for recorded information held by the Commission
under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 or enquiries regarding your own
personal data under the Data protection Act 2018.
Requests of this nature will receive an acknowledgement within 2 working
days with details of when you can expect a response to your enquiry.
If your email relates to matters outside of this remit, your message will
be passed to our Contact Centre for a response.
You may be able to find an answer to common queries on our Frequently
Asked Questions page. Alternatively, please check our publication scheme
as the information you are looking for may be already published.
If you would like to speak with someone for advice, you can call the
Contact Centre on 0121 230 6666 (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday
from 10am to 4pm and Tuesday from 11am to 4pm).
Kind regards
Information Management Team
Gambling Commission
This email and any files transmitted with it are intended solely for the
use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have
received this email in error please return it to the address it came from
indicating that you are not the intended recipient and delete it from your
system. Do not copy, distribute or take action based on this email.
Freedom of Information requests can be submitted either by email
([email address]) or by writing to: FOI request Gambling
Commission Victoria Square House Victoria Square Birmingham B2 4BP Please
clearly state that your request is under the Freedom of Information Act.
Case: 202300155
Dear Mr Lampwick
Please see the attached response to your request under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000.
Information Management Team
Gambling Commission
Victoria Square House
Victoria Square
Birmingham B2 4BP
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