National Lottery operator Camelot has decided not to appeal last month’s High Court judgment refusing to grant a judicial review of the Gambling Commission’s green-lighting of the Health Lottery.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, Camelot chief executive Dianne Thompson said an appeal would have slowed down political action to safeguard the National Lottery and the good causes it supports.

“As we have warned all along, time is of the essence – the longer the period of political inaction, the more incentive there is for other commercial operators to establish similar industrial-scale society lotteries that would effectively cannibalise National Lottery sales and returns to the good causes,” she said.

“Now there is no longer any legal impediment to political action, we are urging the government to take swift action to protect the National Lottery and the significant contribution it makes to society.”

The Gambling Commission’s evidence to the High Court described the Health Lottery – which is organised as a collection of 51 local society lotteries – as being “clearly designed to circumvent the proceeds limits – the gambling equivalent of a tax avoidance scheme that exploits loopholes in the legislation”.

Lord Justice Burnton said the Gambling Commission had interpreted the law correctly and that Camelot would have no realistic prospect of success in the event of a judicial review.

“The question whether multiple society lotteries should be permitted is a political question, to be determined by the government or parliament,” Burnton ruled.

Today a Health Lottery spokeswoman said: “The High Court was quite clear… that it believed Camelot’s case had no reasonable chance of success and that the Health Lottery was an entirely lawful structure. By now calling on the Prime Minister to close down the Health Lottery in this way, Camelot is seeking to shut off a vital pipeline of funding that has helped health-related charities in every part of Great Britain at a time when charities and local projects are struggling more than ever to raise funds.

“Players of the Health Lottery have already helped raise more than £24m for charities including Dementia UK, Mencap, the Youth Sports Trust, the Children’s Food Trust, WRVS, Sustrans and hundreds of others.

“Camelot enjoyed record sales of £6.5bn last year and is enjoying continued growth. Our sales are less than 2% of theirs and we are surprised Camelot continues its attempts to close down a far smaller lottery operator, which in any case has an entirely different and regionally focused structure.”