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11 Lotteries

11.1.1 - Lotteries – societies and local authorities

Applies to:

All lottery operating licences issued to non-commercial societies or local authorities.

  1. Licensees must ensure that at least 20% of the proceeds of any lottery promoted in reliance on the licence are applied to a purpose for which the promoting non-commercial society is conducted or the promoting local authority has power to incur expenditure.

  2. For the purposes of this condition:

    1. the proceeds of any lottery promoted in reliance on this licence must not exceed £5,000,000 and subject to 11.1.1 2b, the aggregate of the proceeds of lotteries promoted wholly or partly in a calendar year in reliance on the licence must not exceed £50,000,000.
    2. In 2020 the aggregate of the proceeds of lotteries promoted wholly or partly in a calendar year may not exceed £31,331,475.
  3. The rules of any lottery promoted in reliance on this licence must be such as to ensure:

    1. that it is not possible for the purchaser of a ticket in the lottery to win by virtue of that ticket (whether in money, money's worth, or partly the one and partly the other and including any winnings arising from a rollover) more than:
      1. £25,000
      2. if more, 10% of the proceeds of the lottery.
    2. that membership of the class among whom prizes are allocated does not depend on making any payment (apart from payment of the price of a ticket).
  4. A lottery promoted in reliance on this licence must not be linked to any other lottery, free draw or prize competition.

  5. For the purposes of this condition:

    1. two or more lotteries are linked if any of them is so structured that a person who wins a prize in that lottery will also win a prize in some or all others, unless the maximum amount which a person can win is no more than £500,000 in aggregate. In determining whether two or more lotteries are linked it is immaterial how many of them are promoted in reliance on this licence.
    2. a lottery is linked to a free draw or prize competition if:
      1. a person’s participation in, or his being allocated a prize in, the lottery is a means of establishing his eligibility to enter the draw or competition and
      2. the arrangements for the lottery and/or the draw or competition are such that a person may win more than £500,000 in aggregate as a result of his participation in the lottery and the draw or competition.
  6. If a lottery, whilst not a linked lottery, has the feature that by selecting the same numbers in the lottery and in one or more other lottery or lotteries the participant in those lotteries may win prizes which, in aggregate, exceed £500,000, no advertisement for, nor other marketing of, the lottery may make any reference to that feature.

  7. Licensees must ensure that each person who purchases a ticket in a lottery promoted on behalf of a non-commercial society in reliance on this licence receives a document which:

    1. identifies the promoting society;
    2. states the name and address of a member of the society who is designated, by persons acting on behalf of the society, as having responsibility within the society for the promotion of the lottery; and
    3. either states the date of the draw (or each draw) in the lottery, or enables the date of the draw (or each draw) in the lottery to be determined.
  8. Licensees must display ‘licensed by the Gambling Commission’ and details of the Gambling Commission website on lottery tickets.

  9. The price payable for purchasing each ticket in a lottery promoted in reliance on this licence:

    1. must be the same;
    2. must be shown on the ticket or in a document received by the purchaser; and
    3. must be paid to the promoter of the lottery before any person is given a ticket or any right in respect of membership of the class among whom prizes are to be allocated.
  10. For the purposes of these conditions, reference to a person receiving a document includes a reference to a message being sent or displayed to him electronically in a manner which enables him, without incurring significant expense or delay, to:

    1. retain the message electronically; or
    2. print it.
  11. Licensees must lodge with the Commission a description of, and a copy of the rules of, any lottery intended to be promoted in reliance on this licence, and any amendment to the rules of a lottery previously notified to the Commission, at least 28 days before any tickets in such lottery, or amended lottery, are put on sale.1

  12. Lottery tickets must not be sold to a person in any street. For these purposes ‘street’ includes any bridge, road, lane, footway, subway, square, court, alley or passage (including passages through enclosed premises such as shopping malls) whether a thoroughfare or not. But, by way of exception, tickets may be sold in a street from a static structure such as a kiosk or display stand. Tickets may also be sold door to door. Licensees must ensure that they have any necessary local authority permissions, such as a street trading licence.

  13. Accurate accounting records must be kept in relation to all lotteries promoted in reliance on this licence showing:

    1. the total proceeds of each lottery;
    2. the amount allocated to prizes in each lottery;
    3. the amount of proceeds allocated to expenses, and details of those expenses, for each lottery;
    4. the amount applied directly to the purposes of the society or purposes for which the local authority has power to incur expenditure as the case may be; and
    5. the number of sold and unsold tickets in each lottery.
  14. Such records must be made available to the Commission for inspection on request and retained for at least three years from the date of any lottery to which they relate.

  15. In addition, in respect of each lottery promoted in reliance on this licence, a lottery submission must be sent to the Commission within three months of the date of determination of the lottery or, in the case of an ‘instant lottery’, within three months of the last date on which tickets in the lottery were on sale providing the information set out in paragraph 13 above. Every such submission must contain or be accompanied by a declaration that the information given in it is correct and must be shown to have been approved before submission by:

    1. the holder of a personal management licence
    2. a ‘qualified person’ as defined in the Gambling Act 2005 (Definition of Small-scale Operator) Regulations 2006 or
    3. except where the licensee is a local authority, the designated person named on the lottery tickets as having responsibility for the promotion of the lottery.
  16. Where a society or local authority instructs an External Lottery Manager to make the submission on their behalf, they must ensure that the details on the submission are verified and approved by one of the people named above from the relevant society or local authority.

  17. For any calendar year in which the cumulative proceeds of lotteries promoted in reliance on this licence exceed £1,000,000 the licensee must provide the Commission with written confirmation from a qualifying auditor confirming that the proceeds of those lotteries have been fully accounted for in their annual audited accounts. Such confirmation must be provided within ten months of the date to which the accounts are made up.

  18. A qualifying auditor means a person who is eligible for appointment as a statutory auditor under section 1212 Companies Act 2006 or any statutory modification or re-enactment thereof but, in the case of a lottery promoted by or on behalf of a non-commercial society, is not:

    1. a member of the society
    2. a partner, officer or employee of such a member or
    3. a partnership of which a person falling within a or b is a partner.

Read additional guidance on the information requirements contained within this section.

References

1 These matters are to be reported to us online via our ‘eServices’ digital service on our website digital@gamblingcommission.gov.uk

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