Law on Raffle Tickets

Mummy_Jo

Hi

I am just trying to find information on a certain point regarding the law surrounding Raffle Tickets:

By law do you need to have a counterfoil?

Can you buy one ticket for £5 and have 5 chances to win?

We are wanting to pre print raffle tickets with people's names and table number on them place them at their table in an envelope (at a charity ball) and ask them to put £5 in the envelope. Those that do will be given 5 goes in the raffle - Is this legal? It would only be one piece of paper though

Horace

I would do the raffle a different way. As it is a charity event, I would place small envelopes at each place setting and ask people to write their names on the front and enclose a donation for charity..that way the draw can be made on the night and you can just pull the envelope out of the hat and say xyz has won whatever..all money would then go to the charity. I don't thing you should stipulate that they donate £5 though because people don't like being told what to donate. I assume that you are already charging an entrance fee for the event?

If you have preprinted tickets then you will have to have a gaming licence especially if the raffle isnt being drawn on the night (it is too much faff and expense for printers to print individual names and table numbers on tickets). Personally, I wouldn't bother because of all the faff.

Another alternative would be to get some books of cloakroom tickets (ensure they are different colours) and sell these on the night - 5 tickets for £5 or one ticket for a pound. You would have to make the draw on the night (the counterfoils of the tickets go into the draw box).

I must admit that I run a charity raffle at my local business club and use the cloakroom ticket method, it seems to work as we can get £70 on average a night and then at our Christmas party we got £205 from raffle ticket sales (all sold and drawn on the night).

HTH

Mummy_Jo

I've come in to this following very successful years behind me...

Last year they made over £1500 on the raffle as most people suprisingly did give over their £5!

The little tickets had no counterfoils and their names were already pre printed on there as they knew that info from purchasing the tickets in advance. So Mrs Smith Table F seat No 2 was on there and all Mrs Smith had to do was pop £5 in an envelope seal it and give it back. Only Mrs Smith had no counterfoil to keep as her part. I'm not trying to make waves just trying to find out if it is legal or not as I don't want to unecessarily tread on toes IYSWIM.

Just trying to find out whether one ticket can give you five chances or not and they sold about £200 prior to the event. They do have a licence though.

Horace

It wasnt very clear from your original post.

I have bought raffle tickets before (Nat Trust) and bought one ticket to enter a draw to win one of several prizes. So in essence one ticket can be used to win one of several prizes. If in doubt check with the gaming and lotteries commission who will have provided the licence in the first place.

Savvy_Sue

Horace wrote: »

If you have preprinted tickets then you will have to have a gaming licence especially if the raffle isnt being drawn on the night (it is too much faff and expense for printers to print individual names and table numbers on tickets).

I think - but you'd need to check - that the need to have a gaming licence applies only if tickets are being sold other than at the event where the raffle is to be drawn.

eg if you are running a raffle at the school fair, you can only sell tickets at the school fair, NOT at the end of the school day during the previous week.

I think you can preprint tickets if you want to, but you can only sell them at the event if you don't have a licence.

Can't help apart from that, can't get my brain round how you'd give five chances with a single ticket, but it's a small brain today ...

Mummy_Jo

There is an annual licence anyway for other events so that is covered. I can't find anywhere though that stipulates:

You must have a counterfoil
and
If it is possible to have five chances with one ticket - This is to reduce printing a number of tickets...

Thanks for your replies though. If I do get an answer I will let you know and hopefully other people will be aware in the future too