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Your Legal Obligations when you are Lottery Registered

We will notify you in writing once your society is registered for promoting lotteries.  You will remain registered unless your society registration is revoked by us or cancelled by you.

Remember also that we have the power to inspect and copy any documents relating to any lottery and may also inspect and copy information that you might hold about your lotteries on computer disc.

When promoting each and every lottery you wish to hold please ensure that you abide by the following rules:

Returns

The requirements for information that the society must supply to the local authority with whom they are registered are contained within paragraph 39, Schedule 11 of the Act.

Provision of this information allows the local authority to assess whether the financial limits are being adhered to and to ensure that any money raised is applied for the proper purpose.  The information to be submitted is as follows:

·        The arrangements for the lottery (including the date on which tickets were available for sale or supply, the dates of any draw and the value of prizes, including any rollover);

·        The proceeds of the lottery;

·        The amounts deducted by the promoters of the lottery in respect of providing prizes, including prizes in accordance with any rollovers;

·        The amounts deducted by the promoters of the lottery in respect of costs incurred in organising the lottery;

·        Any amount applied to a purpose for which the promoting society is conducted (at least 20% of the proceeds); and

·        Whether any expenses incurred in connection with the lottery were not paid for by deduction from the proceeds, and if so, the amount of expenses and the sources from which they were paid.

The return must:

·        Be sent to the licensing authority by no later than 3 months after the date of the draw (or the last draw) in the lottery; and

·        Be signed by two members of the society, who must be over the age of 18, are appointed for the purpose in writing by the society or, if it has one, its governing body, and accompanied by a copy of their letter or letters of appointment.

The licensing authority must make the returns submitted by societies in the preceding 18 months available for inspection by the public.

Small societies using an external lottery manager

External lottery managers can be an individual, firm or company appointed by the society to manage a lottery or lotteries on behalf of the society.  They are consultants and generally take their fees from the expenses of the lottery.

External lottery managers must hold an operator’s licence issued by the Commission to manage any lottery including small society lotteries registered with a licensing authority.

Any society which employs an unlicensed external lottery manager commits an offence so societies will need to satisfy themselves that any external lottery manager they wish to employ is licensed by the Gambling Commission.  Societies will be able to do this by looking at the register of licences held on the Gambling Commission’s website.

Tickets

Lotteries may involve the issuing of physical or virtual tickets to participants.  Schedule 11 of the Act requires that all tickets must:

·        Identify the promoting society;

·        State the price of the ticket which must be the same for all tickets;

·        State the name and address of the member of the society who is designated as having responsibility at the society for the promotion of the lottery, or if there is one, the external lottery manager; and

·        State the date of the draw, or enable the date of the draw to be determined.

“Ticketless” or electronic lotteries must allow the participant to retain the message electronically, or print it.

The Gambling Commission recommends that societies maintain written records of unsold and returned tickets for a period of one year.  The licensing authority is permitted to inspect the records of the lottery for any purpose related to the lottery.

Annual fees

Once registered, the society must pay an annual fee of £20 to the registering local authority.  This fee must be paid within the period of two months which ends immediately before each anniversary of the registration.  If the registered society fails to pay the annual fee, the local authority may cancel the society’s registration.

WARNING

It is an offence to either fail to send a return or to knowingly provide false information in it.