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Raffles

This Raffles information covers:

• the law on raffles
• holding different types of raffle.

The law

Because raffles are so well-known, it often isn't realised that they are actually lotteries – and subject to the law on gambling. This is now the Gambling Act 2005 – which, although it changes some of the terminology, is much the same as the previous law.

These Laws apply in Great Britain. In Northern Ireland, the law is similar – except where shown.

You can lawfully hold a raffle:

• as an Incidental Non-commercial Lottery which is part of some other event - like fetes, bring and buy sales, or weekly group activities
• as a Small Society Lottery registered with the local council.

Each of these is explained in more detail on the rest of the page.

"Incidental non-commercial" raffles

These raffles are the most common – the raffles you hold (generally using cloakroom tickets) at pretty well every fundraising event, and at group activities like weekly bingo sessions; and very often with prizes which some of your members have donated.

These raffles are entirely lawful so long as you follow the rules:-

• the raffle must not be the only reason why people attend your event – but that need only mean refreshments, or a few bingo games or some other activitiy, or even just a social gathering

• all of the proceeds – apart from money spent on prizes and other necessary expenditures in organising the lottery - must go towards supporting your group's activities or some other good cause

• you can only sell tickets at the event itself – but you can sell as many tickets as you like, and at whatever price you want

• the draw must also take place during the event

• you cannot have cash prizes - and the amount of money that can be spent on buying prizes (excluding donated prizes) currently cannot exceed £500 in total, and you are not allowed to spend more than £100 on expenses (like priniting tickets)

• in Northern Ireland, you must inform the police of your event and you must keep accounts

  Children and young people can also buy or sell tickets for a small lottery raffle only.

The great advantage with these raffles is that they're very simple (and cheap) to organise – if prizes are donated, then you can run a raffle without anything more than a book of cloakroom tickets and a supermarket carrier bag for making the draw. And since most people attending your event will regard buying a strip of raffle tickets as pretty well compulsory, you're almost certain to raise some funds.

If you're holding a weekly raffle along with games of bingo, then you won't want to charge much for tickets – and your donated prizes are probably small items anyway (and there is the story of the bottle of homemade wine which kept being won and donated again as a prize for an entire year!).

"Small Society Lottery" raffles

To hold a raffle where you can sell tickets to the general public before your fundraising event – and / or where you can offer cash prizes – you have to be registered with your local council as a Small Society lottery.

If you plan an annual prize draw – or some other really high profile raffle – then you may find that you can persuade local companies or shops to donate prizes; especially if you can convince them that they'll get some useful free advertising or PR, as well as being able to set their donation against corporation tax. The better the prizes, the more people will want to buy tickets. So obviously you want to sell tickets to many more people than are likely to come along to the draw itself.

Registering as a Small Society Lottery can also make an appreciable difference to the funds you raise from smaller raffles at occasional fundraising events – because you can at least sell raffle tickets to family, friends and neighbours who can't (or don't want to) come along to the event itself. You can also sell them to the general public of course. There is the drawback of needing to have raffle tickets specially printed – required by the rules for Small Society Lotteries – but selling more raffle tickets may more than offset that. And there are online print shops where a minimum order of 400 books would cost you under £50.

Another advantage is that – with the same registration – you could also sell scratchcards or run another kind of lottery. Click here for information about lotteries.

To hold a "Small Society Lottery" raffle, you need to apply to your local council to register a “lottery schemeâ€� which covers all the raffles and lotteries you plan to hold over a year. Your first registration lasts until 31st December of the same year in which you applied, and costs a fee of £35 (at the current rates). Your registration can be renewed on 1^st January every year for a renewal fee of £17.50.

A member of your group will need to be registered as the promoter. You also have to follow these rules:

• the maximum single prize is currently limited to £25,000 in value, including donated prizes

• there is no longer any maximum ticket price - but all tickets must be sold at the same price, and refunds are not allowed

• tickets have to include details of the society, the name and address of the promoter, the name of the local council with which the society lottery is registered, the price of the ticket, and when and where the draw will take place

• tickets can not be sold to or by children under the age of 16 - nor sold on the street

• the amount that can be spent on prizes (excluding donated prizes) must not exceed 55% of the proceeds, and expenses in organising the lottery must not exceed 35% of the proceeds - but a minimum of 20% of the proceeds must go towards the good causes which the lottery is supporting

• a return giving details of the proceeds of the Small Society Lottery, and the amount spent on prizes and expenses, has to be submitted to the local council within 3 months.

If you're planning to register as a Small Society Lottery, it makes sense to contact your local council - usually the Licensing section (or a similar title) - well in advance of when you want to hold your first draw to get their application form, and other information.

If you are planning total ticket sales for the year of over £250,000 (or over £20,000 in a single Lottery), then you have to be registered with the Gambling Commission instead.

Making the draw

When you holding an annual prize draw - or any other raffle for which you've sold hundreds of tickets to the public - then you really do want to make an occasion of the draw.

For such occasions, you certainly need proper equipment for making the draw. A raffle drum - especially the larger versions - looks very striking. An alternative - which saves the chore of putting all the ticket counterfoils in a drum - is to use a random number selector, such as the SAGA Random Selector 6 which we sell.