Charity lotteries and raffles: how they work and where your money goes

A charity lottery is a lottery run for a non-commercial society, such as a charity, sports club or cultural group. In law it's gambling: you pay to enter, there's at least one prize and prizes are allocated by chance (Gambling Act 2005, section 14). The legal name is a society lottery. It can't be run for private or commercial gain, although the society can pay an external lottery manager, which must hold a Gambling Commission licence, to run it.

Every ticket must cost the same and be paid for before the draw. The money raised is then split three ways: prizes, the costs of running the lottery and the good cause. The law sets a minimum share for the good cause, not a fixed split.

You must be 16 or over to buy a society lottery ticket: it's an offence to invite a child under 16 to take part (section 56). The National Lottery, a separate UK-wide lottery, is 18+ for all its games.

The size of the lottery decides who regulates it. A small society lottery registers with the local council, or a licensing board in Scotland, for a £40 fee and £20 a year to renew. If a lottery's ticket sales could exceed £20,000, or the society's lottery sales in a calendar year could exceed £250,000, it's a large lottery and needs a Gambling Commission operating licence, and so do the society's lotteries for the following three calendar years.

Licensed society lotteries must publish each year the percentage of proceeds that went to their good causes in the previous calendar year, and give players information about prizes and the chances of winning before they play. Small society lotteries must send their council details of each lottery within three months of the draw.

Many small fundraisers don't need a licence or registration. The Gambling Commission lists types you can run without one: an incidental lottery at an event, such as a tombola at a school fair, where the lottery isn't the main reason for the event and the money goes to good causes; lotteries for members of a private society; work and residents' lotteries, which can raise money for a good cause or be just for fun but can't make a profit; and customer lotteries on business premises, with prizes under £50 and no profit. Selling tickets online or by phone needs a licence or registration.

Free draws and prize competitions aren't gambling, so the Gambling Commission doesn't regulate them. A free draw must offer a genuinely free entry route, such as first or second class post, promoted as clearly as any paid route; a prize competition must genuinely test skill, judgement or knowledge. In November 2025 the government launched a voluntary code for prize draw operators, including a £250 monthly cap on credit card entries and no credit card entries for instant-win competitions. It isn't law, and it binds only operators that sign up.

For paid draws for houses or cars, the Gambling Commission says it can't tell you whether a competition is safe to enter, so read the terms carefully. Complaints about prize draws can go to the Advertising Standards Authority.

No. HMRC's Gift Aid guidance says a payment for a raffle or lottery ticket, including a 100 club, isn't a gift but a payment for the right to take part, however small the chance of winning or the value of the prize. Charities can't claim Gift Aid on it, so there's no higher-rate tax relief for you either.

A direct donation is different. With a Gift Aid declaration, a charity can claim 25p for every £1 you give, as long as you've paid enough UK Income Tax or Capital Gains Tax to cover it. If you pay tax at a higher rate, you can claim back the difference through Self Assessment. Our charitable giving tax calculator works out the figures, and our glossary explains Gift Aid.

This example compares the legal minimum for a society lottery with a Gift Aided donation. Many lotteries pass on more than the minimum, and licensed ones publish their figure, so check it before you decide.

At the 20% legal minimum in Great Britain, £10 of tickets guarantees £2 for the cause (£10 × 20%). In Northern Ireland, where prizes are capped at 50% and expenses at 20%, at least £3 must be left for the society (£10 × 30%). A £10 donation with Gift Aid gives the charity £12.50 (£10 plus £2.50 claimed from HMRC). A higher-rate taxpayer can also claim back £2.50 (£12.50 × 20%), so the gift costs them £7.50. To get £12.50 to a cause at the 20% minimum, you'd need to buy £62.50 of tickets (£12.50 ÷ 20%).

Check who runs it and who regulates it. A licensed lottery, or its external lottery manager, should appear on the Gambling Commission's public register; for a small lottery, ask which council it's registered with. Tickets for a small society lottery must show the society's name, the price, the name and address of the organiser or external lottery manager, and the draw date.

The Gambling Commission's warning signs include being asked to send cash overseas or call an international or premium-rate number, payment to an individual rather than through a secure site, emails from personal addresses, and claims such as 'winning will change your life', which advertising rules don't allow. If a lottery says it's raising money for a well-known charity, contact the charity to check. Report scams to Action Fraud and suspected illegal lotteries to the Gambling Commission or the council. See our scams guide for more.

Some charities decide not to run a lottery at all, because buying a ticket is gambling and part of every pound goes on prizes and costs. World Aid Network explains why it doesn't run a lottery: it says it won't tie its fundraising to a product that can deepen gambling harm and asks supporters to give directly instead, while making clear it isn't criticising charities that run lotteries carefully.

The law allows charities to raise money through lotteries, and licensed lottery operators must have policies to stop tickets being sold to under-16s. Both are legitimate choices. For you, the question is simpler: if your main aim is to support a cause, a direct gift gets more to it; if you enjoy the chance of a prize, a lottery ticket is a bet with part of the stake going to a good cause.

The Gambling Act 2005 doesn't apply to lotteries in Northern Ireland. Society lotteries there run under the Betting, Gaming, Lotteries and Amusements (Northern Ireland) Order 1985, as amended in 2022. A society registers with its district council for a £35 fee, and Article 137 of the Order sets different limits.

Tickets can cost up to £100 and must all be the same price. Ticket sales can't exceed £80,000 for a single lottery or £1 million a year for a society, and no prize can be worth more than £25,000 or 10% of the proceeds, whichever is greater. Prizes can take no more than 50% of the proceeds and expenses no more than 20%, which leaves at least 30% for the society's purposes. HMRC's Gift Aid rules apply across the UK, so tickets can't be Gift Aided in Northern Ireland either.