Small society lottery registrations

If you are a non-commercial society you must be registered if you wish to run a lottery (sweepstake, draw or raffle) where tickets are sold in advance.

Your society needs to be registered by the local authority in the area where its principal office is located.

For more information please see the Gambling Commission website, Gambling Act 2005 and our applicant guidance.

Eligibility

Your society must be established and conducted for:

charitable purposes
the purpose of enabling participation in, or support for a sport, athletics, or cultural activity
any other non-commercial purpose other than that of private gain.

Apply for a small society lottery registration

To apply please complete a small society lottery registration form, and submit this through our online portal with the payment of £40.

You must submit these forms at least one month before your first lottery is due to take place.

Please take care to complete the application form in full. Any incomplete or illegible applications will be rejected. We may have to issue the registration by email so please ensure you provide an email address on your application.

For details on how we use data relating to licence holders and applicants, please see our privacy notice for licence holders and applicants.

What happens next?

We will process your application and send you a registration certificate. You will then need to pay an annual fee of £20 to maintain the registration.

If we can’t accept your registration, for whatever reason – for example, if we are not satisfied that your society is non-commercial, we will contact you to confirm this.

You must tell us how much the lottery raised within three months after each draw using this return form.

If you have had to postpone a draw/raffle, there is no need to reprint or amend the tickets to reflect the new date. We would recommend that anyone purchasing tickets is told clearly what the revised draw date will be, and where you have a website or any social media channels, use these to advertise the new date. If anyone who has purchased a ticket does not wish to wait for the new draw date, then you should consider refunding their money. In addition, when you submit your return for the draw, please note on that form the original draw date as printed on the tickets, and the date the draw actually took place.

To pay the annual fee (£20) and submit your return form use this portal.

Sign up for the South Oxfordshire charitable lottery

Did you know we have our own community lottery?

It’s a great fundraising solution for local not-for-profit organisations as you do not need a small society lottery registration, saving you precious administration time and fees.

Tickets cost just £1 each, with 60p going to good causes and the local community. Players can choose which local good cause(s) they want to support when they purchase tickets and prizes range from free prize draw entries to a £25,000 jackpot.

Find out more and sign up your community group