Christmas Raffle Rules: Do You Need a Licence? A UK Guide for Work, School and Club Raffles

November 11, 2026

Most Christmas raffles in Great Britain need no licence. A raffle or tombola at a one-off event, such as a Christmas fair, party or dinner, counts as an incidental lottery: sell tickets only at the event, spend no more than £500 of the takings on prizes and £100 on costs, and give the rest to a good cause.

The rules change if you sell tickets before the day, sell them online, run a draw for customers or keep it among colleagues. This guide covers each kind of Christmas raffle under the Gambling Act 2005, what tickets must show, and prize ideas for work, school and club raffles. It is a plain-English summary of Gambling Commission guidance, not legal advice.

Which kind of Christmas raffle are you running?

The law calls a raffle a lottery: people pay to enter and prizes are won by chance. Which rules apply depends on who can buy a ticket and where they buy it.

Your raffle	Type of lottery	Who can buy	Licence or registration
Christmas fair, party, dinner or carol concert, tickets sold on the day	Incidental lottery	Anyone at the event, children included	None
Office or factory raffle among colleagues	Work lottery	People who work at the same premises	None
Draw for the residents of a care home or sheltered housing scheme	Residents' lottery	People who live at the same premises	None
Club raffle for members	Private society lottery	Members, and non-members on the society's premises	None
Shop, café or pub draw for customers	Customer lottery	Customers on the premises, aged 16 or over	None
Tickets sold in advance, door to door or online for a charity, school or club	Small society lottery	Anyone aged 16 or over	Register with your local council

If nobody pays to enter, it is not a lottery at all. A free draw at the staff Christmas party, with prizes paid for by the company and a ticket for everyone, is not regulated.

Raffles at a Christmas fair, party or dinner

This is the incidental lottery, and it covers most school, church and club Christmas raffles and tombolas. The Gambling Commission's rules are:

It must sit alongside an event. The raffle cannot be the main reason for the event, which can be commercial or non-commercial but must be one-off.
Tickets are sold only at the event, while it is running. No advance sales, and no selling online or through social media.
Anyone at the event can buy, including children.
Any tickets will do, as long as the winning tickets can be identified. Cloakroom tickets are fine. There is no maximum ticket price, and multi-buy offers are allowed.
Costs: up to £100 of the takings can cover expenses such as printing or equipment hire.
Prizes: up to £500 of the takings can be spent on prizes. Donated prizes have no limit.
No rollovers from one draw to another.
The rest goes to a good cause, not to private or commercial gain.

The draw can happen during the event or after it. Tell people when the winners will be announced, and how unclaimed prizes will be handled.

A raffle at work

A raffle among colleagues is a work lottery. Only people who work at, or from, the same premises can run it and take part. Colleagues at the company's other offices are not included, and nor are clients or visitors.

A work lottery can raise money for a good cause or just be for fun, but it cannot make a profit: everything taken goes on prizes and reasonable costs, or to the cause. Rollovers are not allowed.

Two common Christmas set-ups and where they fit:

A charity raffle at the staff Christmas party, with tickets sold on the night: this can be run as an incidental lottery, so the event rules above apply and the proceeds must go to the charity.
A free raffle at the party, where the company buys the prizes and everyone gets a ticket: not a lottery, so not regulated. It also avoids the awkwardness of asking colleagues for money in December.

If you are also running Secret Santa, our guide to Secret Santa at work covers spending limits and gifts to avoid.

A Christmas draw for customers in a shop, café or pub

A business can run a customer lottery, with tighter rules:

Tickets can only be sold to customers on your premises. No online sales.
No prize can be worth more than £50.
No profit: ticket money goes on prizes and running costs only, so it cannot be used for fundraising.
Nobody under 16 can buy a ticket.
Only one draw in any seven days, and no rollovers.
Each ticket must show the name and address of the organiser, the ticket price, any restrictions on who can buy, and a statement that it cannot be transferred.
It cannot be run on premises with a gambling premises licence.

Many shops run a free prize draw instead, such as a business-card bowl on the counter. With no payment to enter, it is not a lottery.

Selling raffle tickets in advance or online

If a school, PTA, charity or club wants to sell tickets for weeks before a Christmas draw, or sell them online, it needs a small society lottery. The Gambling Commission's guidance for small society lotteries is:

Register with your local council's licensing team before selling. The fee is normally £40, then £20 a year to renew.
Sales limits: no more than £20,000 of tickets in one lottery, or £250,000 in a calendar year.
At least 20% of the takings must go to the society's purposes.
No single prize over £25,000, donated or not.
Buyers must be 16 or over.
Where you can sell: door to door, online, by phone or face to face, but not in the street.
Every ticket must show the society's name, the ticket price (the same for every ticket), the organiser's name and address, and the date of the draw (or how it will be set).
Send a return to the council within three months of the draw.

This is the route to use if you want parents to buy tickets on the school website or through a club's social media page.

How to run a Christmas raffle: a checklist

Pick the type. Use the table above. If tickets will be sold before the day, register with your council first.
Set the cause. Decide which charity or good cause gets the proceeds, and say so on posters and at the draw.
Gather the prizes. Ask local businesses and parents for donations early, and keep bought prizes within £500 at an event raffle.
Sort the tickets. Cloakroom tickets are fine at an event. For a small society lottery, print the required details on every ticket.
Display the prizes. A prize table with numbered labels makes it easy for winners to choose in order.
Do the draw in public. Ask someone neutral, such as a guest, a pupil or the Christmas fair Santa, to pull the tickets.
Announce the winners and keep a record of what was taken, what was spent and what went to the cause.

Christmas raffle prize ideas

The best prizes are things people would pay for anyway, and donated prizes stretch the money furthest. Ideas by type of raffle:

School and PTA raffles: a hamper made up from donations, cinema or bowling vouchers from local venues, a personalised Christmas tree decoration, a book bundle, a class-made Christmas card set and a voucher from a local café.
Club and charity raffles: a meal for two from a local restaurant, club merchandise, personalised coasters with the club crest and a signed shirt or programme.
Office raffles: an extra day's leave (check with HR), a parking space for January, lunch with the boss, a coffee shop voucher and branded Christmas baubles for the team's desks.

From our own range, good fits for raffle prizes are personalised Christmas baubles, personalised coasters and a digital gift card so the winner can choose their own personalised piece. Our personalised gifts under £20 make good second and third prizes.

Businesses sponsoring a school or club raffle sometimes donate branded Christmas baubles with their logo engraved, which puts the sponsor's logo on the winner's tree. Schools buying for a whole class can see wooden Christmas products for schools, and our guide to what to write on a Christmas bauble has wording ideas.

Bulk discounts apply automatically at checkout, per product: 10% off 20+, 15% off 50+, 20% off 100+, 25% off 250+, 30% off 500+ and 35% off 1,000+.

All items are made to order. Dispatch time is shown at checkout. UK orders via Royal Mail Tracked 24. International via Royal Mail International Tracked.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

The Gambling Act 2005 and the rules above apply across Great Britain: England, Wales and Scotland. Northern Ireland has its own law, the Betting, Gaming, Lotteries and Amusements (Northern Ireland) Order 1985, so check with your council there before running a raffle.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a licence for a Christmas raffle?
Not usually in Great Britain. A raffle at a one-off event with tickets sold on the day, a raffle among colleagues at the same workplace, a members' raffle and a customer draw all run without a licence. You only need to register with your local council if you sell tickets in advance or online, as a small society lottery.

Can I sell raffle tickets on Facebook or online?
Not for a raffle at an event: tickets for an incidental lottery can only be sold at the event while it is running. To sell tickets online, a society such as a school PTA, charity or club must first register a small society lottery with its local council.

Can children buy raffle tickets?
Yes, at a raffle held at an event. The Gambling Commission says anyone at the event can buy a ticket, including children. For a small society lottery or a customer lottery, buyers must be 16 or over.

How much can you spend on raffle prizes?
At a raffle held at an event, up to £500 of the money taken can be spent on prizes, plus up to £100 on costs. Donated prizes have no limit. In a customer lottery run by a shop or café, no prize can be worth more than £50.

Is a tombola a raffle?
In law both are lotteries. The Gambling Commission treats tombolas, raffles and sweepstakes at fairs, fetes and other events as incidental lotteries, so the same event rules apply to both.

Also see: wooden Christmas decorations and gifts and staff award ideas for the Christmas party.

Sources

Rules checked against these sources in November 2026.

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