Lotteries

Lotteries are one of the most popular types of gambling in the UK. Any type of competition or prize draw scheme will be classed as a lottery if it has the following characteristics:

  • players have to pay in order to take part
  • one or more prizes is allocated to one or more players
  • prizes are allocated by a process which relies wholly on chance (or if there is more than one round to select a winner, the first round relies wholly on chance).

A number of types of competition could fall within the definition of a lottery, including raffles, tombola, sweepstakes, 100/500 clubs, and prize draws. Any such promotions must comply with the requirements of a category of lottery, as set out below. In some cases, this will require the promoter to register with us, or obtain a licence from the Gambling Commission.

Small society lotteries

Charities, sports clubs and other non-commercial organisations wishing to run small lotteries to raise funds for their activities will need to register with us. Small society lotteries can be used to raise up to £250,000 per calendar year, with a limit on the proceeds from each individual lottery of £20,000. Please see our small society lotteries page for further details.

Other types of lottery

The Gambling Act 2005 regulates a number of other types of lottery, although we are only responsible for registering small society lotteries.

National Lottery

The National Lottery is the largest lottery scheme in the UK. The operator is licensed and regulated by the Gambling Commission, who ensure that its competitions are run in accordance with the licence terms and conditions and the relevant legal requirements.

Large society lotteries

Any non-commercial society that organises a single lottery expected to raise more than £20,000, or multiple lotteries raising more than £250,000 in a calendar year, must hold a lottery operating licence issued by the Gambling Commission.

Incidental lotteries

Incidental lotteries held entirely at events (such as where tickets are only sold at and during the event), where all the money raised from the lottery goes to purposes that are not for private or commercial gain, do not need to be registered or licensed, as long as they comply with certain statutory criteria.

 Incidental lottery information sheet (PDF 272KB)

Private lotteries

Private society, work or residents' lotteries are those where tickets are only sold to society members, workers in or residents of a premises. For example, a weekly raffle where tickets are sold only to the residents of a residential care home, or an office sweepstake.

Customer lotteries

Customer lotteries are those run by occupiers of business premises selling tickets only to customers on the premises itself.

Skill competitions and free prize draws

Most skill competitions will not be classed as lotteries, as they will not rely wholly on a process of chance to select the winner. The test that has to be applied is whether the competition (which may either rely on a test of skill, such as sporting ability, or a test of knowledge) is sufficiently difficult to eliminate a significant proportion of players.

Similarly, free prize draws, which do not require payment of an entry fee, are not considered to be lotteries.

Contact us

Telephone: 01442 228470 / 228860
Email: licensing@dacorum.gov.uk

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Page Last Updated: Thursday, 02 March 2023 at 03:13 PM

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