Non-commercial gaming
The first type of race night occurs where the selection of a
‘horse’ by a participant is totally dependent on chance, and where
no ‘odds’ or ‘form’ are available to assist the gambler’s
selection. An example would be the use of archive films of
horseracing without revealing the details of each race.
Such nights can be run without a licence, or any other form of
permission, providing the operation of the gaming falls into one of
the three categories below.
Incidental non-commercial lottery
Where the race night is not the only or main purpose of a
non-commercial event, it is possible to operate it as an incidental
lottery. In this case there are no limits on the amount that
players may be charged to participate, but no more than £500 may be
deducted from the proceeds of the lottery for the cost of prizes
(which may be in cash or in kind), and no more than £100 for other
expenses.
The organisers can only sell tickets at the event and they have to
announce the results at the event. As an example, a ‘horse’
might be picked at random for each paying customer who is awarded a
prize if the horse ‘wins’.
Non-commercial prize gaming
Race nights can be held as non-commercial prize gaming. The
players must be told what good cause will benefit from the profits
of the gaming. The prizes must be advertised in advance and
must not depend on the number of people playing or the stakes
raised.
In non-commercial prize gaming, the ‘race’ determines the
individual winner or winners, for example, those who have paid are
allocated or select a named horse in the race. The winners are
then awarded the prizes that had been advertised in advance.
Non-commercial equal chance gaming
Race nights can also be run as non-commercial equal chance
gaming. Equal chance gaming, which also includes games such as
poker or bingo, is gaming where the chances are equally favourable
to all participants and players are not competing against a
bank.
The maximum amount that a player may be charged is £8 per day (this
includes entrance or participation fees, betting stakes and any
other payments in relation to the gaming).
Organisers must ensure that the total amount paid out in prizes
remains below £600 in total across all players. However, where an
event is the final one of a series in which all of the players have
previously taken part, a higher prize fund of up to £900 is
allowed.
This could take place, for example, where each participant pays a
fee for a randomly selected ‘horse’ in each ‘race’ and the
participant with the winning horse or chooser of the winning horse
receives a prize commensurate with the stakes placed.
Please contact
us if you have any further questions on race
nights.
Page last reviewed: November 2011