A lottery is a type of gambling which:
- persons are required to participate
- one or more prizes are allocated to one or more members of a class
- the prizes are allocated by a process which relies wholly on chance
Fylde Council is responsible for registering small lotteries.
A small lottery must be run for:
- for charitable purposes
- for the purpose of enabling participation in, or of supporting, sport, athletics or a
- cultural activity
- any other non-commercial purpose other than that of private gain
The total value of tickets to be put on sale in a single lottery must be less than £20,000 and must not exceed £250,000 in a calendar year. If a lottery does exceed these figures they are licensed by the Gambling Commission.
Some lotteries are exempt from needing a license, the most common type is a incidental non commercial. An incidental non commercial lottery is one that is not promoted for private gain and which is incidental to a non commercial event.
An event is deemed non-commercial if all the money raised at the event, including entrance fees, goes entirely to purposes that are not for private gain. Therefore a fundraising social event with an entrance fee would be non-commercial if the profits went to a society but would be commercial if the profits were retained by the organiser.
For this type of lottery, part one of schedule 11 of the Act, and regulations laid by the regulations, specify the following:
- the promoters of the lottery may not deduct more than £500 from the proceeds in respect of the cost of prizes
- the promoters of the lottery may not deduct more than £100 from the proceeds in respect of the cost of other expenses, such as the cost of printing tickets or hire of equipment
- the lottery cannot involve a rollover of prizes from one lottery to another
- tickets must only be sold at the premises during the event, and the result must be made public while the event takes place
Register your small society lottery
Small society lotteries must be registered by the council in the area where your principal office is located. An application form must be completed and submitted with a fee of £40.
The registration can be renewed annually at a cost of £20 – registration holders will be written to when their annual fee is due.
Within 3 months of any lottery taking place you need to submit a returns form, using the button below detailing any expenses deducted.
