Guidance
Lottery submissions guidance
Guidance for information collected in the Lottery Submissions service.
General guidance on lottery submissions
A separate lottery submission must be made for each lottery run under a licence from us.
Each lottery submission must detail:
- date of the lottery
- type of lottery (e.g. raffle style, scratchcard)
- individual ticket cost
- total ticket sales (proceeds) (split between remote and non-remote sales)
- return to good cause
- total expenses and prizes (including any amount rolled over to the next lottery, or awarded from a rollover)
- the value of the single largest prize awarded
- if the lottery was run as a branded lottery (and if so, the name of that branded lottery)
- the date of the next lottery.
Lottery submissions must be made via the lottery submissions module on our eServices digital service.
Lottery submissions must be made within three months of the date of the lottery draw. In the case of an instant win (scratchcard) lottery, this should be within three months of the last date on which the instant win game was put on sale (or within three months of the expiry date of the scratchcards).
As we only regulate gambling in Great Britain, not the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (except for The National Lottery), operators must ensure the data they submit is for their operations in Great Britain (GB) only. Northern Ireland data must not be included. Data for customers or operations relating to the Isle of Man, Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey must also be omitted, as these are Crown Dependencies and not part of Great Britain.
If a question is not applicable to a submission, operators must enter ‘0’ in that field. For example, if no prizes (money or non-monetary) were allocated from ticket sales for a rollover, enter a ‘0’ for the field ‘Amount rolled over to the next lottery.’ This is because all numeric fields in each lottery submission must contain a value.
All financial values must be in Pound Sterling.
Lottery operators are reminded that if they sell tickets by both remote and non-remote methods, they need both a non-remote and remote licence (or an ancillary remote licence if (remote) sales are £250k or below per annum). Remote sales are not just those made using the internet. They include any lottery tickets sold over the telephone, or any other kind of electronic or other technology for facilitating communication.
Detailed information about the responsibilities of lottery operators, including lottery submissions, can be found in the Licence conditions and codes of practice.
Lottery submissions – landing page
The landing page of the lottery submission module on eServices displays the total lottery proceeds for each lottery reported by a lottery operator along with the details on expenses, total prizes, and the balance of proceeds returned to the purposes of the society.
If you wish to view the full details of a lottery, click 'View' in the Actions column.
To make a new lottery submission click ‘Add lottery submission’ at the bottom of the page.
Check the Messages Requiring Action section to see if we need you to take any actions as a result of your submissions.
Data validation
If you see a message on the submission when you click on the ‘Submit’ button, it is likely that there is a validation error on the submission. These errors must be rectified before re-submitting the return. Make sure that the information you have provided has been entered in the correct format and your calculations are correct.
If you see a message after submission, it is likely that there is information that you are required to provide to us (such as a statement of audited accounts), or there is information in the submission that we may wish to discuss with you (such as your licence category, your total annual proceeds, or your ancillary remote licence). If this is the case, we will contact you using the preferred contact method you have provided to us.
Previous sectionLS Guidance - Common terms and definitions Next section
LS Guidance - Certification statement
Last updated: 30 January 2022
Show updates to this content
No changes to show.