UK Raffle Rules for Charities: Licences, Limits and How to Stay Legal

A raffle is legally a lottery in the UK. That single fact drives everything else on this page. Lotteries are regulated under the Gambling Act 2005 in England, Scotland and Wales, and the Gambling Commission oversees how they are run. The good news is that most charity raffles fit into categories that need either a simple local authority registration or no registration at all. This guide explains which category your raffle falls into, what the limits are, and what must appear on your tickets.

This guide covers Great Britain. Northern Ireland regulates lotteries separately under the Betting, Gaming, Lotteries and Amusements (Northern Ireland) Order 1985, and the rules differ. This article is general information, not legal advice. Check with your local licensing authority or the Gambling Commission if you are unsure.

What makes a raffle a lottery

The Gambling Commission treats an activity as a lottery when three elements are present: people pay to enter, at least one prize is awarded, and winners are decided purely by chance. A raffle, a tombola and a sweepstake all meet this test. If any one element is missing, the activity is not a lottery. A free-to-enter draw is not a lottery. A competition decided by skill or judgement is not a lottery. Those two exemptions matter, and we cover them below.

The raffle categories that matter for fundraisers

UK law splits lotteries into several categories. Four of them cover almost every charity raffle.

1. Incidental lottery: a raffle at your event

This is the raffle at your gala dinner, fete, quiz night or ball. No licence and no registration is needed, provided you follow the conditions. Tickets can only be sold at the event, during the event. The draw can happen at the event or afterwards, as long as ticket holders can find out who won. No more than £100 of the proceeds can be deducted for expenses such as printing or equipment hire, and no more than £500 can be spent on purchased prizes. Donated prizes have no value limit, which is why sourcing donated auction and raffle prizes is standard practice. All proceeds after these deductions must go to a purpose that is not private or commercial gain.

2. Small society lottery: selling tickets in advance or to the public

The moment you want to sell tickets before your event, advertise the raffle publicly, or sell beyond the walls of a single event, you are running a society lottery. A non-commercial society is an organisation run for charitable, sporting or other benevolent purposes: charities, schools, sports clubs and community groups all qualify.

A small society lottery does not need a Gambling Commission licence, but it must be registered with the licensing department of your local authority. Registration typically costs £40 for the first year and £20 per year after that. Two financial limits define the category:

• Ticket sales for a single draw cannot exceed £20,000
• Total ticket sales across all your lotteries cannot exceed £250,000 in a calendar year

Cross either threshold and you need a lottery operating licence from the Gambling Commission, which moves you into large society lottery territory. Most school, club and community raffles sit comfortably inside the small society limits.

After the draw, the promoting society must submit a return to the local authority reporting the outcome of the lottery, including proceeds, expenses and the amount applied to the good cause.

3. Private lotteries: members, workplaces and residences

Private society lotteries (tickets sold only to members of your club or society, or to guests on your premises), work lotteries (colleagues on the same premises) and residents' lotteries (people living at the same address) need no registration. The trade-off is reach: you cannot advertise or sell to the general public.

4. Large society lottery: licensed operations

Above £20,000 per draw or £250,000 per year, you need an operating licence from the Gambling Commission. This is the territory of the major charity lotteries and hospice lotteries. If your fundraising is approaching this scale, take professional advice before your next draw rather than after it.

Ticket requirements for a small society lottery

Every ticket in a registered small society lottery must show:

• The name of the society running the lottery
• The price of the ticket, and every ticket must be the same price
• The name and address of the promoter
• The date of the draw

Digital tickets satisfy these requirements when the same information is displayed to the buyer. Two further rules apply regardless of format: no ticket sales to anyone under 16, and no discounting, so no five-for-the-price-of-four bundles that make ticket prices unequal.

Incidental lotteries have no prescribed ticket content, which is why cloakroom tickets at a gala are fine.

Can you run a raffle online in the UK?

Yes. A registered small society lottery can sell its tickets online, and this is now the default for many fundraisers because digital sales remove cash handling, produce a clean record for the statutory return, and make the draw itself auditable. The rules follow the raffle, not the sales channel: the society remains the promoter, the ticket information requirements still apply, ticket prices must stay equal, under-16s must be excluded, and the per-draw and annual limits are unchanged.

Platforms such as GalaBid provide the ticketing, payment and draw tools while your organisation remains the promoter of record. GalaBid's draw uses certified random number generation, which gives you a defensible answer to the one question every raffle organiser eventually gets asked: how do we know the draw was fair? If you are new to running one, the step-by-step raffle guide covers setup, and there is a comparison of online raffle fundraising platforms if you are weighing options.

Free draws and prize competitions: the exemptions

Two formats sit outside lottery regulation entirely.

A free draw is exempt because no payment is required to enter. A draw can still be free in law if there is a paid entry route alongside a free postal entry route, provided the free route is genuinely available and communicated. This is the structure many commercial prize draws use.

A prize competition is exempt because winning depends at least in part on skill, knowledge or judgement, and the skill element must be real enough to deter a significant proportion of entrants or prevent them from winning. A question anyone can answer does not count.

Both exemptions are useful, but they are also where organisers most often get it wrong. The Gambling Commission publishes guidance on running these without accidentally operating an illegal lottery. If your plan depends on one of these exemptions, read that guidance first.

Quick reference

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a licence to run a charity raffle in the UK?

Usually not. A raffle held entirely at an event needs no licence or registration. A raffle with advance or public ticket sales needs a small society lottery registration with your local authority, which is a form and a small fee, not a Gambling Commission licence. Only lotteries above £20,000 per draw or £250,000 per year need a Commission licence.

How much does it cost to register a small society lottery?

£40 for the first year with your local authority, then £20 per year to stay registered.

Can under-18s buy raffle tickets?

The legal minimum age for society lottery tickets is 16. Many organisations choose to set 18 as their own policy, particularly when selling online, and that is permitted.

Can raffle tickets be different prices?

No. In a society lottery every ticket must cost the same, so bundle discounts that change the effective price per ticket are not allowed. Incidental lotteries at events are the exception.

Do the same rules apply in Scotland and Wales?

Yes. The Gambling Act 2005 covers England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland has its own legislation with different rules.

What happens if a raffle breaks the rules?

Running an unlicensed lottery that needed a licence is a criminal offence. In practice, minor accidental breaches by community groups tend to result in guidance or warnings, but the sensible course if you discover a problem is to stop selling, contact the Gambling Commission or your local licensing authority, and keep a record of what you did.

Last reviewed August 2026 against Gambling Commission and local authority licensing guidance. Rules can change; confirm current requirements with your licensing authority before your draw.

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