RAFFLES AND BINGO

The law on lotteries and gaming is quite complicated and these notes should be taken as a rough guide only.
There are some things you can do without asking permission from the local authority, the police, the Gaming Board or anyone. There are two types of raffle you can hold.

1. Small lotteries incidental to certain entertainments

You can have a raffle at a fete or a dance or a sports day or some similar event. You must sell all the tickets at the event and you must also announce the winners before the end of the event. So if you were arranging a raffle at a disco in a community centre, you should only sell tickets in the community centre during the disco and you should have the draw before the end of the disco.

The tickets can cost anything you like. Anyone can sell them and anyone can buy them. You can't have cash prizes. You can't use any of the money you take for "private gain". But you can use the takings to pay for:

• the expenses of the disco (or whatever event it is)
  
• the cost of printing the raffle tickets
  
• the cost of providing the prizes up to £250.

2. Private lotteries

Members of a group, club or society can hold this kind of raffle. The group's committee has to authorise the raffle in writing. Only members of the group can buy tickets.

You can't advertise the raffle. You can't send tickets through the post. Every ticket must have on it:

• the price of the ticket
  
• the names and addresses of the promoters
  
• something that says who can buy tickets
  
• something that says that tickets are not transferable.

Prizes can be in cash or kind. You can pay printing costs out of the takings but otherwise the money you make must go on prizes or be given to your group.

There is no age restriction for buyers or sellers and no restrictions on the price of a ticket (as long as each ticket costs the same as every other ticket) or how many tickets you can sell.

Bingo, Whist Drives, Bridge evenings etc

You can run these kind of sessions "for purposes other than private gain" if:

• each player only pays once (for entrance fee, ticket money, or whatever) and doesn't pay more £3.00. So you can't charge for each separate game in a session.
  
• the total value of the prizes for all the games isn't more than £300.
  
• you only deduct a "reasonable" sum for running expenses.

You can deduct running expenses and prize money from the takings. Prizes can be cash or kind. People of any age can play. You don't have to form a club; members of the public can play. There are no restrictions on advertising.

If you want to have more than one session in a day - a morning session and an afternoon session, for instance - the law would consider them the same session (so £300 worth of prizes for the whole day, one payment of no more than £3.00 per player for the whole day) unless the sessions were promoted by different people or held on different premises.

Licences

If you want to run a lottery where you sell tickets in advance, you must register with the local authority. Telephone Halton Borough Council and ask for Licensing (0151 424 2061 Ext 1054). They will send you a form and guidance notes. You return the form with a fee of £35.00 for the first year (£17.50 renewal each year after that), they look at the application and let you know fairly soon whether or not you have been given permission to go ahead. In theory you shouldn't go to a printer until you've actually got the physical licence. You have to make returns to the Council after the completion of each lottery.

The licensing year runs from 1st January to 31st December so if you register in November you pay £35.00 for only a few weeks. You can't hold more than one lottery at a time. The lottery must be run not for private gain.

The total value of the tickets must be less that £20,000. If the total value of tickets is more than £20,000 you will need to register with the Gaming Board. Each ticket must cost no more than £1, all the tickets must have the name and address of the promoter on them, the name of the Society on them, the price, the date of the draw, the fact that you are registered with the local authority, and registered under the Lottery and Amusement Act 1976 and a registration number.

Tickets must be sold by people 16 or over, or to people 16 or over, and must not be sold in the street or in a bingo or gaming club or betting office.

No more than 80% of the takings can be used for expenses and prizes. Up to 55% can be given back in prizes and up to 35% used for expenses. For example if expenses were 35%, prizes could be no more than 45% of the takings. No prize can have a value of more than 10% of the value of the tickets sold.

Further information

Voluntary Sector Legal Handbook - see Halton Voluntary Action Library.

The Gaming Board, 168-173 High Holborn, London, WC1V 7AA.
Telephone: 0171 306 6200.

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