Lotteries, Raffles and Competitions

Facial Palsy UK’s Lottery

Our lottery is now managed by Affinity Lottery, this is a licensed lottery. You can take part for £1 per week by clicking the link below:

Join Facial Palsy UK’s Lottery

Organising your own lottery, raffle or prize draw

Lottery is an umbrella term that includes many types of event such as raffles, tombolas and sweepstakes. Lotteries are regulated by the Gambling Commission and below is information that those fundraising for Facial Palsy should be aware of.

There are three essential ingredients to a lottery:

1. You have to pay to enter the game
2. There is always at least one prize
3. Prizes are awarded purely on chance

For a quick guide about lotteries please look at this Gambling Commission publication.

Important things to remember when running any kind of lottery:

• Inform participants where their money will be spent
• People should never feel under pressure to take part

Lotteries that do not require permission

Incidental Lottery – licence not required

This could be a raffle, tombola or sweepstake held at an event such as:

• Fetes
• Fairs
• Fundraising dinners

Rules:

• The lottery cannot be the main reason for holding the event, it must take place alongside a commercial or non-commercial one-off event.
• You can sell tickets to anyone at the event, you should not sell tickets outside of the event.
• You must provide a physical ticket for taking part, there are no set requirements as long as you can identify the winners and it can be something as simple as a cloakroom ticket.
• There is no limit to how much you can charge per ticket, you can apply discounts for multiple purchases such as buy one get one free.

Costs:

You can use up to a maximum of £100 from your proceeds to cover expenses to run the lottery, e.g. purchase of cloakroom tickets or hiring equipment.

Prizes:

You can take up to a maximum of £500 from proceeds to pay for prizes. Prizes can also be donated, with donated prizes there is no limit on what they normally cost.

Prizes cannot be rolled over from one lottery to another.

Announcing the result:

You can either do the draw during or after the event but you should make it clear to participants when the results will be announced. If you have used cloakroom tickets for a raffle you will have not collected people’s name and address details to contact them later so it is best to draw the winners as part of the event.

Work lottery – licence not required

You can’t make a profit from a workplace lottery, proceeds must either be used for reasonable expenses and prizes or donated to charity. You can run this type of lottery to raise money for Facial Palsy UK. You can sell tickets to anyone who works at your location.

Rules:

• Everyone who is taking part in a work lottery must all work at the same physical location, e.g. office, factory or other place of work. You can’t operate the lottery across multiple sites.
• You must not sell tickets online, via email or over the telephone.
• You must provide physical tickets to participants.
• There are no specific requirements for what needs to be on the tickets, i.e. they can be cloakroom style tickets.
• People must pay the same price for each ticket.
• The tickets must be non-transferable.
• You must only sell physical tickets to your colleagues when you are at your place of work.

Costs:

You can claim money for prizes and reasonable costs using the money you raise.

Prizes:

Prizes cannot be rolled over from one lottery to another.

Announcing the result:

You can only do the draw on your workplace physical premises, and not online.

Private society lottery – no licence required

You can run a lottery, raffle, tombola or sweepstake with people you’re in a club with, without a licence. This is called a private society lottery. The money raised from a private lottery must be spent on a relevant good cause, e.g. your club, group, organisation, local cause, or a nominated charity.

Rules:

• You must be a member of the society and have permission from those who lead the society in order to run this type of lottery.
• Participants must be members of the society or guests who visit the society premises.
• Non-members can only buy tickets on your society’s physical premises.
• You must not sell tickets online.
• You must provide physical tickets to participants.
• There are no specific requirements for what needs to be on the tickets, i.e. they can be cloakroom style tickets.
• People must pay the same price for each ticket.
• The tickets must be non-transferable.

Example of a private society could be:

• an amateur dramatics organisation
• a sports club
• a community group
• a private members club
• any other type of organisation that has not been created or being run for a reason connected to gambling.

Costs:

You can claim money for prizes and reasonable running costs using the money you raise.

Prizes:

Prizes cannot be rolled over from one lottery to another.

Announcing the result:

You can only do the draw at your private society’s physical location, it cannot be done online.

Lotteries that require permission

Small society lottery – licence required

If you want to sell tickets outside of an event, to a wider group of people, then you must obtain a licence from your local authority. As the promoter of the lottery you will take full responsibility for the organisation of the lottery and meeting legal obligations. You would need to apply for a licence from your local council and pay a fee of £40 for the first year and £20 on renewal. You can find out more on the Gambling Commission website.

Tickets must include:

• The name of your society or local authority
• Ticket price
• The name and address of the organiser
• The date of the draw

Costs:

You can claim costs for prizes and expenses up to the value of 80% of ticket sales.

Important points:

• Tickets cannot be sold by or to people under the age of 16 and must not be sold in the street.

There is lots more information on the Gambling Commission website.

Prize Competitions

A licence is not required to run a prize competition that people pay to enter as long as the participant displays a certain level of knowledge, judgement or skill in order to be eligible to win the prize. Lotteries are different in that you win by chance.

You can find out more information on the Institute of Fundraising website or on the Gambling Commission website.