Restrictions on ‘incidental’ lotteries to be removed
Howard Lake | 18 August 2014 | News
The government is to allow the proceeds of private lotteries to be donated to good causes. Previoulsy companies, societies and residents groups running “non-commercial incidental lotteries” – those that are exempt from Gambling Commission licence or local authority registration – were prevented by the Gambling Act 2005 from donating the proceeds to good causes.
The Department for Media, Culture and Sport (DCMS) opened a consultation in February this year after the Red Tap Challenge highlighted the restrictions. In their submissions, a number of charities reported that they had had to refuse permission for volunteers to raise money through lotteries because of these restrictions.
DCMS is also removing the requirement for the results of these exempt lotteries to be announced during the event. The government’s response to the consultation says this will allow events such as balloon races to raise money for good causes.
However, the government has decided not to extend the removal of restrictions on workplace lotteries to those that are run across a number of sites because this could lead to an “undesirable overlap” with the purpose of small society lotteries.
Read the government response to the Consultation on Incidental Non-Commercial, Private Society, Work and Residents’ Lotteries.
In a separate move, Parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee has announced an inquiry into society lotteries to examine their role and place “within a system that includes the Health Lottery and the National Lottery”.
The committee’s inquiry will also address:
* How to ensure that the market delivers the maximum benefit to good causes
* Whether there is a case for relaxing the regulatory requirements relating either to the minimum amount of proceeds that a society lottery has to return to good causes or in other areas
* The comparative regulatory positions and protections attaching to society lotteries, the Health Lottery and the National Lottery.
The inquiry is open for submissions until 6 October.
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.