Small Lotteries

The Lotteries and Amusements Act 1976 allows any charity or similar organisation which wishes to run a lottery or raffle where tickets are to be sold to the general public  must first register with the Council.

A fee is payable on registration and on 1st January each year if the registration is to continue. Whilst registered, organisations can hold as many lotteries as they want but must appoint a promoter for each one.  A number of conditions must be complied with when running a lottery and details of these conditions will be supplied to all applicants for registration.  A return showing the total proceeds of each lottery and how the money was spent must be submitted to the Council within three months of each lottery.

Subject to certain conditions it is not necessary to register with the Council to run a lottery where tickets are only sold at some form of entertainment (e.g dance or fete) and the prize winners are drawn at the event, or where the tickets are only sold to members of one organisation not set up for the purposes of gaming, betting or lotteries or to persons who all work or reside on the same premises.

We have produced a guide for persons wishing to apply for a small lottery (pdf file size172 KB), an application form (Pdf document size 128 KB) and a lottery returns form (Pdf document size 110 KB).

The application should be completed and returned to our Licensing Office together with the fee of £35. Each year that the lottery is continued will require the further payment to this authority of £17.50. Alternatively any lottery form or information can be posted to you - please contact our Licensing Office (contact details are on our main Licensing Office page) or if you wish to raise any other matter related to small lotteries in the Gedling area.