Gambling licensing

A lottery is a form of gambling where you pay to enter the game. There is always at least one prize allocated by chance. Any type of competition or prize draw scheme will be classed as a lottery if:

• players have to pay to take part
• players can win one or more prizes
• prizes won by chance

Under the Gambling Act 2005, lotteries or raffles cannot be for private or commercial gain. Lotteries can collect money for a good cause, such as a charity, to help a local club buy equipment or a school to raise funds for educational needs. 

Many types of competition fall within the definition of a lottery, including: 

• raffle
• tombola
• Sweepstake
• 100 or 500 club
• prize draw 

Sometimes, the lottery promoter must register with us or obtain a licence from the Gambling Commission.

Small society lotteries

Charities, sports clubs and other non-commercial organisations who want to run small lotteries to raise funds for their activities need to register with us. You can use a small society lottery to raise up to £250,000 per calendar year. Proceeds from each lottery cannot exceed £20,000. 

Application cost and annual fee

You’ll need to pay a non-refundable fee to register for your small society lottery.  If we reject your application, you will not receive a refund.

You must pay an application and annual fees. Annual fees are payable yearly on the registration start date anniversary. You need to pay this to keep your registration active.

Check what fees you need to pay

Other types of lottery

The Gambling Act 2005 regulates many 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, licensed and regulated by the Gambling Commission. This ensures that its competitions follow the licence terms and conditions and 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.

Lotteries which do not need a licence

Incidental lotteries

Incidental lotteries are held entirely at events, where tickets are only sold at and during the event. All the money raised from the lottery is not for private or commercial gain. Incidental lotteries can be registered or licensed if they comply with statutory criteria.

Private lotteries

Private society, work or residents' lotteries are those where tickets are only sold to society members, workers, or residents. For example, this could include a weekly raffle selling tickets only to residential care home residents or office sweepstakes.

Customer lotteries

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

Skill competitions and free prize draws

Most skill competitions will not be classed as lotteries, as they do not rely 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 challenging to eliminate a significant proportion of players.

Similarly, free prize draws, which do not ask for payment of an entry fee, are not considered lotteries.

More information on the rules for lotteries which do not need a licence is available from the Gambling Commission.

Register a small society lottery

You can use our online form to register small society lottery. 

Register a small society lottery 

You can save the form and go back to it later. We will email you a unique link to let you log back into your application at a later point if needed.

Check the Gambling Commission for guidance and compliance

Issuing your registration

Once we make a decision on your application, we will issue your registration within 10 working days.

Reporting lottery draws and returns 

The promoting society of a small society lottery must accurately reflect the results of any lottery it holds by submitting a statutory return to the local authority. 

Use our online form to submit your small society lottery return.

Submit a small lottery society return

The return must be:

• submitted within three months from the day the first or last draw in the lottery takes place
• signed in writing by two appointed members of the society. If the society has one, its governing body must sign

Renew a small society lottery

You can use our online form to renew a small society lottery. 

Renew a small society lottery

Public register

The Gambling Commission public register holds the details of all operating licence holders, personal licence holders and premises licences.