Branson likely to win lottery prize -- but not yet

Richard Branson: his consortium is now the only bidder for Britain's national lottery

LONDON (CNN) -- Popular entrepreneur Richard Branson looks likely to take control of Britain's £15 billion ($22 million) national lottery despite a surprise decision by government officials to reject both bidders for the prize.

The Lotteries Commission initially announced neither the People's Lottery bid, headed by Branson, or the current holder of the contract, Camelot, had met all its conditions.

The Lotteries Commission chairwoman, Dame Helena Shovelton, then added that the People's Lottery had been invited into negotiations to resolve the concerns.

Branson's bid pledged to return the profits from the lottery to the community and create a millionaire a week through a restructuring of lottery games.

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A deadline of one month had been set for negotiations with the group.

"In the event that this negotiation fails to reach our required threshold, based on our legislative responsibility, we intend to ask the government to take such steps that will keep the lottery running," Shovelton said.

The holder of the current lottery franchise, Camelot, had been rejected because of concerns over software problems experienced during the operation of the current lottery.

A fault in the software, provided to Camelot by a sub-contracted U.S. company GTECH, had led to a glitch that short-changed some British lottery winners.

Shovelton said the software problem was viewed as, "a serious one that has shaken the commission's confidence in GTECH as a supplier to Camelot."

She said Branson's People Lottery bid had failed for now because of "legal uncertainties".

The government-appointed commission of five members was concerned that the proposal was so conditional and so uncertain that it could not be accepted.

The commission was unsatisfied that the bid's lottery would "protect all the players, all the time," Shovelton said.

Since it began six years ago, Britain's national lottery has become the second most popular lottery in Europe behind Italy's.

30 Million Britons play at least once a month gambling about £90 million ($130 million) a week.

Britain is the only European country where a private company is licenced to run the national lottery.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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