Guidance
Guidance to licensing authorities
The Gambling Commission's guidance for licensing authorities.
Contents
- Changes to the Guidance for Licensing Authorities
- Part 1: General guidance on the role and responsibilities of licensing authorities in gambling regulation
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- Introduction
- Partnership working between the Commission and licensing authorities – shared regulation
- Co-ordination and contact
- Primary legislation
- Statutory aim to permit gambling
- The licensing objectives
- Codes of practice
- Licensing authority discretion (s.153 of the Act)
- Local risk assessments
- Licensing authority policy statement
- Limits on licensing authority discretion
- Other powers
- Part 2: The licensing framework
- Part 3: The Gambling Commission
- Part 4: Licensing authorities
- Part 5: Principles to be applied by licensing authorities
- Part 6: Licensing authority policy statement
- Part 7: Premises licences
- Part 8: Responsible authorities and interested parties definitions
- Part 9: Premises licence conditions
- Part 10: Review of premises licence by licensing authority
- Part 11: Provisional statements
- Part 12: Rights of appeal and judicial review
- Part 13: Information exchange
- Part 14: Temporary use notices
- Part 15: Occasional use notices
- Part 16: Gaming machines
- Part 17: Casinos
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- Casino premises
- Casino games
- Protection of children and young persons
- The process for issuing casino premises licences
- Resolutions not to issue casino licences
- Converted casinos (with preserved rights under Schedule 18 of the Act)
- Casino premises licence conditions
- Mandatory conditions – small casino premises licences
- Mandatory conditions – converted casino premises licences
- Default conditions attaching to all casino premises licences
- Self-exclusion
- Part 18: Bingo
- Part 19: Betting premises
- Part 20: Tracks
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- Definition of a track
- Track premises licences – differences from other premises licences
- Betting on tracks
- Licences and other permissions for the provision of betting facilities
- Betting on event and non-event days
- Social responsibility considerations for tracks
- Gaming machines
- Self-service betting terminals (SSBTs)
- Applications
- Licence conditions and requirements
- Part 21: Adult gaming centres
- Part 22: Licensed family entertainment centres
- Part 23: Introduction to permits
- Part 24: Unlicensed family entertainment centres
- Part 25: Clubs
- Part 26: Premises licensed to sell alcohol
- Part 27: Prize gaming and prize gaming permits
- Part 28: Non-commercial and private gaming, betting and lotteries
- Part 29: Poker
- Part 30: Travelling fairs
- Part 31: Crown immunity and excluded premises
- Part 32: Territorial application of the Gambling Act 2005
- Part 33: Door supervision
- Part 34: Small society lotteries
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- Small society lotteries
- The status of lotteries under the Act
- Licensing authority guidance
- Social responsibility
- External lottery managers’ licence status
- Lottery tickets
- Prizes
- Specific offences in relation to lotteries
- Application and registration process for small society lotteries
- Administration and returns
- Part 35: Chain gift schemes
- Part 36: Compliance and enforcement matters
- Appendix A: Summary of machine provisions by premises
- Appendix B: Summary of gaming machine categories and entitlements
- Appendix C: Summary of gaming entitlements for clubs and alcohol-licensed premises
- Appendix D: Summary of offences under the Gambling Act 2005
- Appendix E: Summary of statutory application forms and notices
- Appendix F: Inspection powers
- Appendix G: Licensing authority delegations
- Appendix H: Poker games and prizes
- Appendix I: Glossary of terms
2 - The status of lotteries under the Act
34.2. The Gambling Commission and the National Lottery Commission merged on 1 October 2013. No change has been made to the legislation which governs how commercial gambling, and the National Lottery are regulated. The Commission licenses and regulates all commercial gambling and the National Lottery in Great Britain.
34.3. The Act sets out a definition of a lottery, detailed below, and provides that promoting or facilitating a lottery is illegal, unless it falls into one of two categories of permitted lottery22, namely:
- licensed lotteries – these are large society lotteries and lotteries run for the benefit of local authorities that are regulated by the Commission and require operating licences
- exempt lotteries – there are four types of exempt lottery that are expressly permitted under Schedule 11 of the Act, including the small society lottery.
Definition of lottery
34.4. A lottery is any arrangement that satisfies all of the criteria contained within the statutory description of either a simple lottery or a complex lottery, under s.14 of the Act.
34.5. An arrangement is a simple lottery if:
- persons are required to pay 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.
34.6. An arrangement is a complex lottery if:
- persons are required to pay to participate
- one or more prizes are allocated to one or more members of a class
- the prizes are allocated by a series of processes
- the first of those processes relies wholly on chance.
Definition of society
34.7. Licensing authorities should define ‘society’ as the society, or any separate branch of such a society, on whose behalf a lottery is to be promoted, and need to understand the purposes for which a society has been established in ensuring that it is a non-commercial organisation. Further information about establishing non-commercial societies can be found in paragraph 34.29. S.19 of the Act defines a society as such if it is established and conducted:
- for charitable purposes, as defined in s.2 of the Charities Act 2006 (opens in new tab)
- for the purpose of enabling participation in, or of supporting, sport, athletics or a cultural activity
- for any other non-commercial purpose other than that of private gain.
34.8. It is inherent in this definition that the society must have been established for one of the permitted purposes as set out in s.19 of the Act, and that the proceeds of any lottery must be devoted to those purposes. It is not permissible to establish a society whose sole purpose is to facilitate lotteries.
Local authority lotteries
34.9. Local authorities are entitled to operate their own lotteries but may only do so if licensed by the Commission. Local authorities must commit a minimum of 20 percent of the proceeds from such lotteries for a purpose for which they have power to incur expenditure and must also adhere to the other relevant provisions in the Act. They may also need to hold a remote gambling operating licence, in the event that they wish to sell lottery tickets via electronic or other remote technological methods such as over the telephone, email or via the internet.
References
22 For further information regarding this see the advice - Promoting society and local authority lotteries and How to run a lottery or fundraiser (opens in new tab)
Small society lotteries Next section
Licensing authority guidance
Last updated: 14 September 2023
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