Society lotteries are lotteries promoted for the benefit of a non-commercial society. A society is non-commercial if it is established and conducted for charitable purposes, it enables participation in, or supporting of, sport, athletics and cultural activities and for any other non-commercial purpose other than that of private gain.

What are the limits placed on small society lotteries?

The limits are as follows:

• 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
• 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
• The total value of tickets for sale for single lottery cannot exceed £20,000
• The annual value of tickets for all lotteries per calendar year must not exceed £250,000

If you plan to exceed any of these limits, you must be licensed with the Gambling Commission. View Gambling Commission website.

pdf Download further guidance about Small Society Lotteries. (141 KB)

Registration

You must register your small society lottery with the council in the area where your principal office is located. To apply for registration with us, please complete the form below.

• document Download Lottery Registration Application form (154 KB)

Once completed the form should be returned to us at: Licensing, Wychavon District Council, The Civic Centre, Queen Elizabeth Drive, Pershore, Worcestershire, WR10 1PT.

The fee to apply for registration as a small society lottery is £40. Once a society is registered there is an annual fee of £20 to maintain their registration. If this fee is not paid, the registration will be cancelled.

Lottery Returns

After each lottery, the promoting society of a small society lottery must send certain information as returns to the licensing authority with which it is registered.

This information allows us to assess, in particular, whether the financial limits are being followed and to ensure that any money raised is being applied for the proper purpose.

The information that must be submitted is as follows:

• The arrangements for the lottery - specifically the date on which tickets were available for sale or supply, the dates of any draw and the value of prizes, including any donated prizes and any rollover
• 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
• 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 amount applied to the purpose for which the promoting society is conducted (this must be at least 20% of the proceeds)

The return must be sent no later than three months after the date of the lottery draw, or in the case of 'instant lotteries (scratch cards) within three months of the last date on which tickets were on sale and be signed (electronic signatures are acceptable if the return is sent electronically) by two members of the society, who must be aged eighteen or older, 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.

A template for making information returns can be downloaded below:

• document Download Financial Return form (361 KB)

If you want to use premises to provide facilities for gambling, you will first need to obtain a premises licence from us under the Gambling Act 2005.

The types of Licence available are as follows:

• Casino premises licence
• Bingo premises licence
• Adult gaming centre premises licence
• Family entertainment centre premises licence
• Betting premises licence

Except in the case of a track, a premises licence cannot authorise the use of premises for activities of more than one of the types listed above. A licence cannot be issued in respect of premises if those premises already have a premises licence in effect.

Premises licences can only be granted to those who already hold the relevant gambling operator licences issued by the Gambling Commission.

For more information about the regulation of gambling, visit the GOV.UK website.

Applications

Premises licence application forms and notice of application forms can be downloaded from the Gambling Commission website.

You should submit your application along with the relevant fee to:

Licensing, Wychavon District Council, The Civic Centre, Queen Elizabeth Drive, Pershore, Worcestershire, WR10 1PT

The fee you will need to pay depends on the type of premises that you are applying in respect of and the type of application being made. A list of the current fees we charge under the Gambling Act 2005 can found on our Licensing Fees and Charges page. View Licensing Fees and Charges page.

Gaming machines

Premises such as pubs that are licensed under the Licensing Act 2003 for sale of alcohol for consumption on the premises, are automatically allowed to provide up to two category C or D gaming machines under the Gambling Act 2005.

Information on the different categories of gaming machine are provided on the Gambling Commission's website.

Notifications and permit applications

In order to benefit from this automatic entitlement, the holder of the relevant premises licence must tell us in writing that they intend to provide the machines and pay a fee of £50.

If you are the holder of the alcohol premises licence and you want to make available more than two category C or D machines you must apply for an alcohol licensed premises gaming machine permit.

If you want to notify us of your intention to make gaming machines available in licensed premises, or want to apply for a gaming machine permit please  pdf download application form for gaming permit (102 KB) .

The form and relevant fee should be returned to: Licensing, Wychavon District Council, The Civic Centre, Queen Elizabeth Drive, Pershore, Worcestershire, WR10 1PT

The fees we currently charge under the Gambling Act 2005 can be found on our Licensing Fees and Charges page. View Licensing Fees and Charges page

If you are making gaming machines available in licensed premises, you are required to comply with a code of practice, which has been drawn up by the Gambling Commission on the location and operation of machines.

The code of practice can be found on the Gambling Commission website.

Exempt Gaming in Licensed Premises

Exempt gaming is equal chance gaming which is generally allowed in any club or alcohol licensed premises.

Such gaming should be ancillary to the purposes of the premises. Such premises are automatically allowed to provide this type of gaming, as long as certain Government rules relating to stakes and prize limits are followed.

Equal chance gaming is gaming that does not involve staking against a bank and the chances of winning are equally favourable to all participants. It includes games such as backgammon, mah-jong, rummy, kalooki, dominoes, cribbage, bingo and poker.

The Government has set both daily and weekly prize limits for exempt gaming in alcohol licensed premises, pdf read more in the Gambling Commission's Code of practice for equal chance gaming in clubs and premises with an alcohol licence document. (76 KB)

Specific advice on allowing poker in alcohol licensed premises is provided below:

• pdf Read Gambling Commission - Poker in pubs document (1.32 MB)

If you are allowing exempt gaming in your premises, this should be supervised by a nominated gaming supervisor and you must comply with the code of practice issued by the Gambling Commission, pdf for more information see the Gambling codes of practice document. (654 KB)

Gambling law separates gaming that happens in clubs from gaming that happens in other alcohol licensed premises (such as pubs).

The law creates two types of club for the purposes of gaming: members' clubs (including miners' welfare institutes) and commercial clubs. This are differences between the type of gaming that can take place in the different type of clubs.

The Gambling Commission has produced detailed guidance on gaming in clubs and alcohol licensed premises:

• pdf Read advice on gaming in clubs and alcohol licensed premises (95 KB)

Gaming machine categories

Information on the different categories of gaming machine can be found by the Gambling Commission. View Gambling Commission website

Club gaming permits

Members' clubs (including miners' welfare institutes) can apply for a club gaming permit which allows for the provision of no more than three gaming machines from categories B3A, B4, C or D. A club gaming permit also allows the club to provide equal chance gaming (subject to the conditions for exempt gaming described below), except that the limit on stakes and prizes is removed.

Club machine permits

If a club does not want to provide the full range of facilities permitted by a club gaming permit, or if they are a commercial club not permitted to provide non-machine gaming (other than exempt gaming under section 269 of the Act), then they may apply for a club machine permit.

Applications for permits

To apply for a club gaming permit or a club machine permit, a club should apply with the relevant fee to: Licensing, Wychavon District Council, The Civic Centre, Queen Elizabeth Drive, Pershore, Worcestershire, WR10 1PT

document Download club gaming/machine permit application document (24 KB)

The fees we currently charge under the Gambling Act 2005 can be found on our Licensing Fees and Charges page.

Clubs that make gaming machines available have to comply with a code of practice, which has been drawn up by the Gambling Commission. This sets out rules about where machines can be placed and how they are operated. pdf This code of practice can be found on the Gambling Commission website. (654 KB)

Exempt gaming in clubs

Exempt gaming is equal chance gaming which is generally allowed in any club or alcohol licensed premises. Such gaming should be ancillary to the purposes of the premises. Such premises are automatically allowed to provide this type of gaming, as long as certain Government rules relating to stakes and prize limits are followed.

Equal chance gaming is gaming that does not involve staking against a bank and the chances of winning are equally favourable to all participants. It includes games such as backgammon, mah-jong, rummy, kalooki, dominoes, cribbage, bingo and poker.

The Government has set both daily and weekly prize limits for exempt gaming in clubs, which are set out in the Gambling Commission's advice on gaming in clubs and alcohol licensed premises: 

• pdf Read advice on gaming in clubs and alcohol licensed premises (95 KB)

Specific advice on allowing poker in clubs is provided below:

• pdf Read about poker in clubs (879 KB)

If you are allowing exempt gaming in your club, this should be supervised by a nominated gaming supervisor and you must comply with the code of practice issued by the Gambling Commission.