Applications for registration of a Small Society Lottery under the Gambling Act 2005.
Small Society Lottery Registration Number
Thank you for your recent application for registration as a Small Society Lottery under Paragraph 42 of Part 5 of Schedule 11 to the Gambling Act 2005 (the 'Act').
Under the Act, your registration lasts indefinitely unless revoked under Paragraph 50 of Part 5 of Schedule 11, however, you are required to pay an annual fee of £20 to ensure continuation of your registration.
This fee is payable within two months of the date of the anniversary of the grant of the registration. If you fail to pay the annual fee, this authority will have no choice but to cancel your registration and you will have to submit a new application. In this case, you would not be permitted to hold any further lotteries until such time that a new application had been submitted and, if appropriate, granted.
262 Small society lottery: breach of condition
A non-commercial society commits an offence if:
- a lottery, purporting to be an exempt lottery under Part 4 of Schedule 11, is promoted on the society's behalf wholly or partly at a time when the society is not registered with a local authority in accordance with Part 5 of that Schedule
- the society fails to comply with the requirements of paragraph 39 of that Schedule
- the society provides false or misleading information for the purposes of paragraph 39 of that schedule.
314 Lotteries: registered societies
Where a society is registered with a local authority in accordance with Part 5 of Schedule 11, an enforcement officer or an authorised local authority officer may enter premises owned or used by the society for the purpose of making inquiries in connection with a lottery promoted on behalf of the society.
Returns
Following each lottery, you are required to provide certain information to this Authority in the form of a statutory return. This return must be received no later than three months after the date of the draw, or the last draw, in the lottery and within three months of each lottery held.
The information you provide will enable this authority to assess, in particular, whether the financial limits under which the registration has been given are being adhered to, and to ensure that any money raised is applied for the proper purpose.
The information which you are required to supply 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, the value of prizes including any rollover and information in relation to any prizes which were donated
- the proceeds of the lottery
- the amounts deducted by the promoters of the lottery in 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 to at least 20 percent of the proceeds
- 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 signed by two members of the society, who must be aged 18 or over, 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.
Tickets
Lotteries may involve the issuing of physical or virtual tickets to participants. Paragraph 36 of Part 4 of Schedule 11 to the Act requires that all tickets must show the following information which you must ensure compliance with:
- 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
- state the date of the draw, or enable the date of the draw to be determined.
Further information can be found on the Gambling Commission website.