Guidance
Lotteries and the Gambling Act 2005
Guidance on lotteries and the Gambling Act 2005 for local authorities
Contents
- Introduction
- Definition of a lottery
- Definition of ‘prize’
- Definition of ‘society’
- Application and Duration
- Annual Fee
- Refusal of application
- Revocation of a small society’s registered status
- Appeals
- Cancellation
- Lottery Tickets
- Lottery Proceeds
- Lottery Prizes
- Administration and returns
- Lottery register
- Types of lottery that do not require a registration or licence (exempt lotteries)
- When is a lottery not a lottery?
- Common Problems
Definition of a lottery
For something to be a lottery, it must meet all the criteria in section 14 of the Gambling Act 2005 (opens in a new tab).
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 entirely on chance.
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.
In practice, this means something is a lottery if people must pay for their chance to enter to win a prize, and the process for allocating those prizes is entirely chance based. If there is an element of skill involved, the process does not rely on chance and therefore is not a lottery ( section 14 (5) (opens in a new tab) of the Gambling Act 2005 and ‘When is a lottery not a lottery?’ for the criteria the skill question must meet).
The difference with a complex lottery is there may be several stages to the competition. However, if the first of those relies entirely on chance, the arrangement is a lottery. This would capture any competition where entrants pay to enter and names are then drawn, even if later stages of the competition require entrants to use skill to continue after the first stage.
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Lotteries and the GA05: Definition of ‘prize’
Last updated: 11 October 2021
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