What is The Law for Online Raffles?

Let’s cut straight to the chase. ‘Online raffles’ are not classed as ‘Gambling’ by the UK Gambling Commission. They do not regulate them and they do not provide information on how they should be officially run. Already confused? You’re not alone.

Lotteries & Prize Competitions (Online Raffles)

First of all, the wording ‘Online Raffle’ is the term that we (Rafflers Ltd) use to describe online prize competitions. ‘Prize Competitions’ is the official terminology used by The Gambling Commission.

For the purpose of explaining the law and to avoid further confusing, we will refer to prize competitions as online raffles.

Lotteries

The majority of us have played the National Lottery at some stage of our lives! You pop to your local supermarket, buy your tickets and cross your fingers until a winner is chosen. The winner is chosen at random using a lottery ball machine and the winner is contacted. 

A lottery is a form of gambling, outlined by three main elements and requires a gambling licence:-

• Payment is required to participate
• One or more prizes are awarded
• Those prizes are awarded by chance (chosen at random)

If an online raffle was to follow only these three elements, then it would be classed as an illegal lottery! An online raffle must be outlined by other elements to be classed as legal. 

Online Raffles (Prize Competitions)

So what is required for online raffles to be classed as legal? There are in fact two options for raffle providers..

Skills Based Questions

In order for an online raffle to be legal, the Gambling Commission states that..

“competitions that genuinely rely on skill, judgment or knowledge are to be permitted to operate free of any regulatory control under the Gambling Act 2005”

Im sure you have noticed when entering an online raffle that the majority will require a multiple choice or single question to be answered correctly in order to purchase a ticket. It is this that removes online raffles from being regulated by the gambling commission.

This is, however, a slightly grey area. The Gambling Commission also states:-

“there are some competitions that ask just one simple question, the answer to which is widely and commonly known or is blatantly obvious from the material accompanying the competition. The Commission considers that these do not meet the test in the Act.”

In fact, it is stated in the Gambling Act 2005 that the skill based question should be difficult enough to..

“Deter a significant proportion of those who wish to enter from doing so, or. Prevent a significant proportion of those who do enter from winning a prize”

In simple terms, if a question is way too easy, then this will not meet the requirement for the online raffle to be legal! Furthermore, who decides if a question is too difficult or not? So then, if the skill based question is to easy then there is one more step to be taken to make an online raffle legal.

Free Entry Route

Online raffle providers are at risk of being classed an illegally run online raffle provider if the skills based question is too easy. To completely cover themselves and be deemed as legal it is then an option to add a further element to the entry process. This is a free entry route. The Gambling Commission states:-

“if a competition organiser establishes two equally prominent and convenient methods of paying for entry and one costs less than the other, that is sufficient for the competition to meet the requirement.”

By adding a free entry route (as well as a paid route), this allows the skills based question to be easy to answer. However, the free entry route must be treated in the same way as the paid option. The same amount of maximum entries per person must be the same for both paid and free entries.

A free entry route is most commonly processed by sending a postcard to a specific address with specific details. These should be outlined by the raffle provider in their terms & conditions or a pop up window when an entrant clicks on the eg. For Free Entry Method Click Here text. This text should be displayed at the same level as the ENTER NOW button. 

You can learn more about our VETTING PROCESS