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11 Lotteries

11.2.1 - Lotteries – managers

Applies to:

All lottery operating licences issued to external lottery managers.

  1. Licensees must ensure that at least 20% of the proceeds of any lottery promoted in reliance on the licence are paid to the promoting non-commercial society or local authority to apply to a purpose for which the promoting society is conducted or the 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 may not exceed £5,000,000 and subject to 11.2.1 2b, the aggregate of the proceeds of lotteries promoted wholly or partly in a calendar year on behalf of the same non-commercial society or local authority in reliance on the licence may not exceed £50,000,000.
    2. In 2020 the aggregate of the proceeds of lotteries promoted wholly or partly in a calendar year on behalf of the same non-commercial society or local authority in reliance on the licence may not exceed £31,311,475.
  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 in reliance on this licence on behalf of a non-commercial society, 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
    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
    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. Licensees must have arrangements in place to ensure separation between lottery proceeds they hold on behalf of non-commercial societies or local authorities and their own trading income and that such lottery proceeds are legally protected by means of separate bank accounts having trustee status or equivalent legal protection for each society or local authority in the event of the licensee’s insolvency, in which event the proceeds will be paid to the society or local authority.

  14. Licensees must ensure that following the determination of a lottery all lottery proceeds are properly allocated between prizes, expenses and profits and have procedures in place designed to ensure that lottery profits belonging to non-commercial societies or local authorities whose lotteries they manage in reliance on this licence are accounted for in a timely manner to the society or local authority.

References

1 These matters are to be reported to us online via our ‘eServices’ digital service on our website

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