What Is Allwyn Ent Ltd on My Bank Statement?
Allwyn Ent Ltd is The National Lottery. Allwyn Entertainment Ltd replaced Camelot as the operator on 1 February 2024, and the name on existing direct debits changed with it. If you have played for years, nothing about your subscription changed except the words on your statement.
That is the whole explanation for most people seeing this: you did not sign up to anything. A Lotto or EuroMillions direct debit set up under Camelot a decade ago now reads "Allwyn Ent Ltd", and there was no reason for the name to mean anything to you.
At a glance
- Who
- Allwyn Entertainment Ltd
- Companies House
- 13157556
- Head office
- Tolpits Lane, Watford WD18 9RN
- Took over
- 1 February 2024, from Camelot
- Regulator
- UK Gambling Commission
- What it is
- The National Lottery
Who they are
Allwyn Entertainment Ltd, company number 13157556, based at Tolpits Lane, Watford WD18 9RN. It holds the licence to operate The National Lottery and is regulated by the UK Gambling Commission.
Allwyn took over on 1 February 2024, ending Camelot's run as operator since the Lottery launched in 1994. The games did not change. The operator did.
Why the name appeared without warning
Direct debit subscriptions set up with Camelot were transferred to Allwyn. Players were notified that the name shown on their bank statement would change to reflect the new operator, but a notification in early 2024 is easy to miss, and the payment itself carried on unchanged.
So the sequence people experience is: a familiar payment amount, a completely unfamiliar company name, and no memory of authorising anything. All three are consistent with nothing having gone wrong.
Check the amount against what you used to pay Camelot. If it matches, that is your answer.
What the charge could be
- A draw subscription — Lotto, EuroMillions, Set For Life or Thunderball played by direct debit or standing order.
- A one-off ticket purchase on the National Lottery website or app.
- Instant Win Games or online scratchcards.
- A top-up to your National Lottery account balance.
Tickets bought in a shop do not appear this way — those show as a payment to the shop.
A credit rather than a debit?
If the entry is money coming in, it is a prize. Allwyn pays prizes up to £50,000 directly into the bank account registered to your National Lottery account.
Worth knowing because a modest unexpected credit is easy to mistake for an error, and people sometimes ring the bank about it.
Is it a scam?
No. Allwyn is the licensed National Lottery operator, and the name on your statement is the correct one.
There is a separate thing to be alert to, though. National Lottery win notifications are a common scam format — emails, texts or calls claiming you have won a lottery you never entered, asking for a fee or bank details to release the prize.
The real National Lottery never asks you to pay anything to claim a prize, and you cannot win a draw you did not enter. If a message about a lottery win asks for money or account details, it is not from Allwyn.
If you cannot account for it
Check whether it used to say Camelot. Look back through older statements at the same amount on roughly the same date. A matching payment under the old name settles it immediately.
Ask whoever shares the account. A partner's long-standing subscription is the second most common explanation.
Check the National Lottery account itself. Signing in shows active subscriptions and recent purchases, which will confirm or rule it out in a minute.
If none of that fits, treat it as an unrecognised payment. Your bank must refund an unauthorised transaction by the end of the next working day, and your liability before you report it is capped at £35.
How to stop it
It is normally a direct debit, so you can cancel it with your bank and it stops immediately. You can also cancel the subscription inside your National Lottery account, which is tidier because it stops the play as well as the payment.
If a direct debit was taken in error or after you cancelled, the Direct Debit Guarantee entitles you to an immediate full refund from your bank.
If the charges are not yours and gambling is the concern
If you have found lottery or gambling payments on a shared account that nobody will explain, that is worth taking seriously rather than treating as an admin problem.
GamCare runs the National Gambling Helpline on 0808 8020 133, free and confidential, 24 hours a day. GAMSTOP lets someone self-exclude from all UK-licensed online gambling sites in one go, free of charge.
Banks can help too — most UK banks now offer a gambling block that stops gambling transactions on the card, switched on in the app.
🛡️ Build your recovery plan
Tick what applies to you. The order below is deliberate: most of these organisations will ask for your Action Fraud reference number, so doing it in this sequence saves you making the same call twice.
Nothing ticked yet: the steps below are the ones that apply to everyone. Tick a box above to add the rest.
- 1
Report it to Action Fraud and get your crime reference number
Action Fraud: the national reporting centre for fraud
- Onlinereportfraud.police.uk
- Phone0300 123 2040
Do this second, and do it before you contact anyone else. Almost every organisation in this list (lenders, credit reference agencies, debt collectors) will ask for the crime reference number Action Fraud gives you, and without it you end up making the same call twice. It also creates the official record you'll rely on if you have to dispute anything later. Expect an update within 28 working days, though that's about the investigation, not about clearing your name; that part is on you and starts now.
Have ready: What happened and roughly when · Any account or reference numbers involved
- 2
Get all three credit reports and read every line
Experian, Equifax and TransUnion
- Experian0800 013 8888
- Equifax0800 014 2955
- TransUnion0330 024 7574
All three, not one. Lenders report to different agencies, so a fraudulent account can sit on one file and be invisible on the others: checking a single report is the most common way people miss the second and third account. You're looking for accounts you didn't open, searches you didn't authorise, and addresses linked to your name that you've never lived at. That last one matters more than it sounds: a linked address you don't recognise is often how the fraud was set up in the first place.
Have ready: Your addresses for the last six years
- 3
Add a CIFAS protective registration
CIFAS: the UK fraud prevention service
- Onlinecifas.org.uk
- Phone0330 460 9601
This puts a warning flag against your name in the National Fraud Database, so member organisations run extra identity checks before granting credit in your name. It costs £30 and lasts two years. It does not affect your credit score, and it doesn't touch accounts you already hold, but it will make your own applications slower, which is the trade-off. If someone has your details, that's usually a trade worth making. Note that not every application is checked against the database, so treat it as a strong deterrent rather than a lock.
- 4
Check you're on the electoral register at the right address
Your local council
A quick one that's worth doing while you're here. The electoral roll is one of the main ways lenders confirm you live where you say you do, and being missing from it both weakens your own applications and makes it easier for someone to claim your identity elsewhere.
- 5
Escalate if you get nowhere
Financial Ombudsman Service, or the ICO
- Financial Ombudsman0800 023 4567
- ICOico.org.uk
If a bank refuses to refund you, or a lender won't remove an entry it has accepted is fraudulent, complain to the firm first and give it eight weeks. After that, or as soon as you get a final response, take it to the Financial Ombudsman. It's free and its decisions bind the firm. Where the argument is specifically about inaccurate data staying on your credit file, the Information Commissioner's Office can also look at it. Both routes cost you nothing.
- 6
Close the door behind you
You
Change passwords on your email account first, not your banking: email is the master key, because it's where password resets land. Turn on two-factor authentication wherever it's offered. If documents were lost or stolen, report the passport or driving licence to the issuing body so it can be flagged. And set a reminder to re-check your credit reports in three months: fraudulent applications sometimes surface long after the original breach.
Contact details and process reflect Action Fraud, CIFAS, the credit reference agencies and National Debtline guidance for England and Wales. Scotland reports fraud through Police Scotland on 101 rather than Action Fraud; the rest of the process is the same. General information, not legal advice: free, independent help is available from National Debtline, Citizens Advice and StepChange.
