Lotteries

The Gambling Act 2005 regulates lotteries. The type of licence, registration or permission you need depends on the type of lottery you want to run.

Types of lottery

Some lotteries require an Operating licences from the Gambling Commission.

This includes:

Large society lottery - where ticket sales exceed £20,000 for a single lottery or £250,000 in a calendar year.
Local authority lottery - where at least 20% of the proceeds must be used for purposes for which public funds may be spent.

Some lotteries do not require a licence or registration

Private society lotteries - where tickets are sold only to society members
Work or residents lotteries - where sellers and purchasers work or live on the same premises
Customer lotteries - where the lottery is run by a business on its own premises.
Incidental non-commercial lottery - such as those held at school fetes and other non-commercial events.

Small society lotteries must be registered with the local authority where the society's head office is based.

They are typically run by non-commercial organisations such as:

Small society lotteries are limited to:

Call our Licensing Customer Service Team on 0300 123 5015 during office hours, 8:30am to 5pm Monday to Friday, if you're unable to use our forms.

Licensing Team
Cheshire East Council
Regulatory Services and Health C/O
Delamere House, Delamere Street
Crewe
Cheshire
CW1 2LL

Page last reviewed: 14 September 2026