Gambling Commission Revises Rules on Lotteries in the UK

Change is on the cards again for gambling services in the UK thanks to new rulings by the UKGC. 

Society lotteries are run for the purposes of raising funds for non-commercial societies and, according to the United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC) has the following mandate: 

A society is non-commercial if it is established and conducted for charitable purposes. It also falls under this category if it is for the purpose of enabling participation in, or of supporting, sport, athletics, or a cultural activity. 

The new laws relate to the size of the lotteries and require greater transparency around spending, with information about where lottery proceeds have been distributed, made freely available to the public. 

 Comprehensive Consultation 

All these changes came as a result of a 12-week consultation initiated by the UKGC to achieve the following outcomes: 

• improve data quality and the efficiency of regulation 
• reflect our continued focus on customers and social responsibility 
• ensure requirements are reconciled against our current and future data needs 
• streamline our existing requirements 
• reduce regulatory burden 

Consultation began at the end of 2019 with a proposal deadline set for March 12, 2020. The UKGC received 70 applications and used this to inform changes to the rules and regulations regarding society and local lotteries, which then came into effect on 29 July 2020. 

Included in the changes is license condition 15.2.3 which requires licensees to report ‘any actual or potential breaches by the licensee of provisions of the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on Player) Regulations 2017’. 

In addition, the maximum value of the total winnings from a single draw has been increased from £4,000,000 to £5,000,000. The maximum individual prize will go from £400,000 to £500,000, provided that the lottery proceeds reach the new maximum individual draw level. 

 Total Transparency  

Executive Director of the Gambling Commission, Sarah Gardner said:  

“This consultation has strengthened several important aspects of our license conditions and codes of practice which apply to society lotteries. It is critical that consumers have information available to them to help make fully informed decisions about whether to participate in lotteries.  

These changes will make sure that consumers have access to that information, and the key areas which they and wider stakeholders told us were important to them.” 

The new requirements and guidance puts into place clear, transparent and easily accessible information to consumers on: 

• How much is returned to the good causes and what good causes they’re supporting 
• How much is spent on prizes 
• How much is spent on expenses 
• The process around the awarding of grants 
• The way in which winners are determined and prizes allocated 
• The potential prizes available 
• The likelihood of winning a prize 

The revised laws around society lotteries have been approved by the Gambling Commission in the UK and are being enforced with immediate effect.