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Sale of tickets

Tickets in society and local authority lotteries promoted under licence from the Commission must not be sold to anyone in a street.

Where tickets may be sold

They can be sold:

  • by a person in a static structure such as a kiosk or display stand
  • from a shop premises in a street, or,
  • door to door.

For this purpose a ‘street’ includes any bridges, road, lane, footway, subway, square, court, alley or passage (including passages through enclosed premises such as shopping malls) whether a thoroughfare or not. Society lotteries and/or the responsible ELM must also ensure that they have any necessary local authority permissions, such as a street trading licence. The Commission has recommended to licensing authorities that they also apply this restriction to small society lotteries. Small societies should check with the licensing authority they are registered with.

Lottery tickets must not be sold to, or by, those under the age of 16.

Society lottery tickets may be sold from vending machines. These machines may be sited anywhere that a society lottery ticket can be sold, as mentioned previously.

They are not subject to restrictions on the number that can be sited and no licence is required to site or supply them. However, licensed operators (societies and/or ELMs) must ensure that they fulfil their social responsibility duties under the licence conditions and codes of practice in respect of preventing underage play and problem gambling. In the case of lottery ticket vending machines the operator may wish to ensure that the machine is located in a supervised area or that some other arrangements are put in place to prevent underage and problem gambling.

To minimise the risk of fraud, societies licensed by the Commission should adopt one or more of the following measures when sending unsolicited mailings of lottery tickets:

  • prohibit the unsolicited mailing of lottery tickets to non-members of the promoting society
  • limit the value of tickets sent to any one address which is not that of a member of the promoting society to £20
  • maintain records of tickets distributed and not returned. The Commission recommends that these records should include details of the address to which the tickets have been sent, their total value and their serial number. Information on unsold tickets not returned by the date of the lottery draw should be retained for at least six months.

Society lottery operator licences (remote and non-remote) from the Commission allow societies to sell lottery tickets within Great Britain (England, Scotland, and Wales). If you wish to sell lottery tickets outside of Great Britain you will need to check the laws that apply in that jurisdiction.

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Last updated: 18 January 2023

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