Vale of White Horse District Council
Abbey House, Abbey Close,
Abingdon, OX14 3JE
Email: comments@whitehorsedc.gov.uk
Telephone: 01235 520202

Vale of White Horse District Council

Lottery, raffle and bingo licences

Lotteries or raffles

Organisations wishing to hold any type of "draw" that will be open to the general public will need to apply to the Council for a small lotteries licence. The cost for such a licence is £40 and they run from 1 January to 31 December every year. If you wish to renew the licence in subsequent years, the cost is currently £20 per annum due before the anniversay of the registration. These costs are set by the Government.

You can apply for a licence using the application form on the right of the page.

If, however, you think it may not be worthwhile paying £40 for a licence, you can still raise funds but you need to restrict your sale of tickets. This can be achieved by holding a "private", "work", or "resident's" lottery whereby the tickets are confined to members of a society, club, institution etc. This would mean tickets could not be sold to the general public at large.

Alternatively, you can also raise funds as part of an incidental non-commercial lottery.   

These are exempt from registration if:

• No proceeds from the event will be used for the purposes of private gain.
• The lottery is promoted wholly for a purpose other than that of private gain (i.e. for a charitable purpose or good cause).
• The promoters of the lottery will not be deducting more than £500 from the proceeds in respect of the cost of prizes.
• The promoters of the lottery will not be deducting more than £100 from the proceeds in respect of the cost of other expenses.
• There will be no lottery roll over.
• Tickets will only be sold during the event and on the premises where the event is being held.
• The results will be made public while the event is taking place.

Cash bingo

Cash bingo is primarily a commercial activity, and is licensed and regulated by The Gambling Commission. If you wish to provide cash bingo on a commercial basis you should consult the Gambling Commission website.