Guide Guide to small society lotteries

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6. Annual fees and returns

Following each lottery held You'll  need to send us a return no later than three months after you have carried out your draw.

The licensing authority must make the returns submitted by societies in the preceding 18 months available for inspection by the public.

The licensing authority may receive numerous returns from some societies and therefore careful monitoring will take place to ensure that the cumulative totals for each society do not exceed the annual monetary limit.

If after receiving a return, the licensing authority is of the opinion that the ticket sales are shown to be above the prescribed limits, then they must notify the Gambling Commission in writing and should copy the notification to the society concerned.  The commission will then contact the society to establish whether they are going to apply for a lottery operator’s licence which would enable them to run large society lotteries legally.  The commission will inform the licensing authority of the outcome of its exchanges with the society.

Once registered the society needs to pay an annual fee of £20, this fee needs to be paid within two months before each anniversary of the date of registration. You will need to complete the Small Society Lottery Annual Confirmation Form and Fees Payment Mandate.