Supplementary Information
There are limits placed on small society
lotteries:
- at least 20% of the lottery proceeds must be
applied to the purposes of the society
- no single prize may be worth more than
£25,000;
- rollovers between lotteries are only
permitted where every lottery affected is also a small society
lottery promoted by the same society, and the maximum single prize
is £25,000; and
- every ticket in the lottery must cost the
same and the ticket fee must be paid to the society (i.e. the
society must take payment) before entry into the draw is
allowed
Lotteries may involve the issuing of physical
or virtual tickets to participants (a virtual ticket being
non-physical, for example in the form of an email or text
message).
A purchaser of a small society lottery ticket must
receive a document which identifies:
- the name of the promoting society;
- the price of the ticket (must be the same for
all tickets);
- the name and address of the member of the
society who is designated as having responsibility at the society
for promoting small lotteries, or (if there is one) the external
lottery manager; and
- the date of the draw, or enables the date to
be determined.
However, the requirement to provide this
information can be satisfied by providing an opportunity for the
participant to retain the message electronically or print it.
Other requirements relating to the sale of tickets
are that:
- they may only be sold by persons aged 16 and
over
- they may only be sold to persons aged 16 and
over
- they should not be sold in a street, (street
including any bridge, road, lane, footway, subway, square, court or
passage - including passages through enclosed premises such as
shopping malls); however, tickets may be sold from a kiosk, in a
shop or door-to-door.
Prizes awarded in small society lotteries can
be either cash or non-monetary. However the amount of money
deducted from the proceeds of the lottery to cover prizes and any
expenses must not comprise more than 80% of the total proceeds of
the lottery.
Donated prizes would not be counted as part of this 80% (as no
money would be withdrawn from the proceeds to cover their purchase)
but should still be declared on the return following the lottery
draw.