Small society lotteries

If you plan to hold a raffle or prize draw and sell printed tickets in advance, you must register with us.

Incidental non-commercial lotteries

You do not need a licence or registration if your raffle is an incidental non-commercial lottery.

This type of lottery:

  • uses cloakroom tickets
  • is held at an event such as a school fete or quiz night
  • has the draw taking place on the same day

Small society lotteries

We license small society lotteries, these:

  • do not have proceeds that exceed £20,000 for a single draw

  • do not have aggregated proceeds more than £250,000 in a calendar year

For information on how to run a small society lottery, visit the Gambling Commission website.

If your lottery exceeds the above you will need to contact The Gambling Commission:

Email: info@gamblingcommission.gov.uk

For a licence, you'll need to pay a licence fee on application, and we'll send you an invoice each year to renew the licence. This will continue until you tell us the registration is no longer required.

Other lotteries and fundraisers

You can find more information about different types of lotteries and fundraisers on the Gambling Commission website, or by reading the Gambling Act 2005.

Apply

As part of your application, you'll need to include a supplementary application for every person connected to the promotion of the lottery.

Complete the supplementary form

Before you apply

You'll need:

  • a debit or credit card for payment
  • an online account (you can create one during the process)

Steps to apply

  1. Select licensing
  2. Choose apply for a licence
  3. Select Gambling Act 2005
  4. Choose small society lotteries
  5. Select application for registration of a non-commercial society
  6. Follow the on-screen instructions

There is a fee for this service.

Register for a small society lottery

Each year we will send you an annual invoice for the small society lottery unless you tell us you no longer wish to continue.

Submit a lottery return form

You must complete a lottery return within 3 months of the draw which shows how much:

  • money you raised

  • you used towards expenses

  • money the charity received

The return should also include NIL returns on any draw.

The return must be signed by 2 members of the society who are:

  • aged 18 or over

  • appointed for the purpose in writing by the society, (or by its' governing body) and you must include a copy of the letter of appointment

You'll need to download the lottery return form [doc] 150KB and then select the button below to email us a copy.

Submit a lottery return form

Refusal of registration

We will only refuse an application after the society has had the chance to make representations against the refusal. We will let you know how to do this.

Appeal

If we have refused your application, then you have 21 days to appeal against the decision with the local magistrates' court.