The UK national lottery operator, Camelot, is reportedly looking at possible legal action against its new rival the Health Lottery. The Health Lottery was launched earlier this month, by media baron, Richard Desmond who also owns Channel 5 and the Daily Express. With the approval of the UK Gambling Commission, the new lottery venture was launched with a massive TV advertising campaign and aims to raise tens of millions of pounds for health-related causes.

It is reported by Sky News that Camelot, which has a license to operate the National Lottery until 2019, is looking at whether its rival breaches the strict rules regulating lotteries in the UK. A source suggested that there was the possibility of instructing major City law firm (possibly Baker & McKenzie) to build a case against the Health Lottery (although that’s unconfirmed by Camelot itself).

The Health Lottery has its own concerns regarding the tampering with the terminals it uses to sell tickets, which it says has disrupted sales in some retail outlets. The Health Lottery is also in the dark as to why Google have made a u-turn and told them late last month that they could not advertise using the AdWords service which allows brands to advertise online.

However the Health Lottery is not at this stage blaming Camelot for any of the problems it has faced: “Camelot runs The National Lottery to the highest levels of propriety. We have not been informed of any allegation against any Camelot member of staff regarding the Health Lottery. If any allegation is brought to our attention, we would obviously investigate it thoroughly.”

Camelot which launched the National Lottery in 1994 and faced a rival bid for the license and legal challenge by Branson will be concerned that the Health Lottery posses its biggest challenge to date. In the short term it is a limited threat as the new venture has targeted sales of just £250m while the National Lottery sees more than 20 times this amount.

In a statement the Health Lottery spokesperson added: “The Health Lottery scheme works to represent its 51 society lotteries with the single aim of raising over 50 million pounds for charity, and offering great prizes to give players a great experience. We are already out there making a difference just 2 weeks after launch, having raised over £1m. Irrespective of any practices we might see by others we remain committed to the goal of fair share money raising for every corner of Great Britain in our first year of operation.”

However charitable have expressed concern over the new venture claiming that it donates a smaller proportion of sales to good causes than Camelot does.