In the recent judgment of Re Shopalotto.com (2005), the Comptroller refused a patent application for a computer programme that permitted a user to play the lottery on the grounds that it was excluded from patentability under the provisions of the Patents Act 1977.

Shopalotto.com applied for a patent of a computer apparatus configured to provide a lottery playable via the Internet. The apparatus provided a web server and further software conditioning the machine to receive, store, select and compare. This enabled the computer to operate in a new way