How to run a raffle online (UK & Ireland) — the complete 2026 guide

TL;DR

Running an online raffle in the UK comes down to four decisions: which legal route you use (a small society lottery, a prize competition, or a free draw), what prize you offer and at what ticket price, how you sell tickets and hold the money, and how you draw and pay the winner so that everyone can see the draw was fair. Get those four right and the rest is execution.

1. Pick a legal route

A "raffle" in everyday English covers three different things in UK law. The one you pick changes what you can and can't do.

Small society lottery

This is the route for charities, non-commercial clubs, and registered societies. You register with your local authority (the council where the society is based — currently a £40 application fee and £20 annual renewal), publish the lottery rules, and after the draw you file a return. Every ticket must be sold at the same price and paid for before entry, at least 20% of proceeds must go to the society's stated purpose, and no single prize may exceed £25,000. Stay under £20,000 in total ticket sales per lottery and £250,000 per calendar year or you cross into Gambling-Commission-licensed territory.

Prize competition

This is the route most creators and commercial hosts use. A prize competition must contain either a genuine skill, knowledge or judgement element or a free-entry route — an obvious, equally weighted way to enter without paying. With one of those, a prize competition is not a lottery under the Gambling Act 2005 and does not require a licence.

Free draw

Entry is free for everyone. No payment, no skill required. Free draws don't need a licence; they're usually promotional vehicles for an existing product.

For a deeper dive on the differences, see how to run a raffle legally in the UK.

2. Set the rules and ticket price

Publish the rules before tickets go on sale. At a minimum: who can enter, how to enter (including the free-entry route for prize competitions), the closing date and draw method, the prize, how the winner is notified, and what happens if the raffle is cancelled or doesn't sell its target. A starting-point template lives at raffle rules and terms template (UK).

On ticket price: the only legal rule is that every ticket must be sold at the same price and paid for before entry. Raffair's own floor is 50p for charity society lotteries and £1 for everything else — pricing below that usually doesn't increase entries, it just erodes your unit economics. See the pricing page for the full fee structure.

3. Promote it (without breaking ad rules)

UK ads have to comply with the CAP code. Platform policies on Meta, TikTok, and Google treat gambling-adjacent content cautiously. The safest formula:

• Be clear it's a prize competition (don't call it a "giveaway" if money changes hands).
• Disclose the legal route and include the free-entry path prominently if you have one.
• Restrict to age-appropriate audiences. The legal minimum to enter a society lottery is 16; prize competitions and free draws have no statutory age limit. Raffair's own policy is 18+ across the board.
• Never imply guaranteed winnings or downplay risk.

Full playbook: how to promote a raffle.

4. Draw the winner and pay out

The single largest trust failure mode in online raffles is "trust me" draws — where there's no way for entrants to verify the result wasn't rigged. The fix is a commit-reveal RNG plus a public randomness beacon (such as drand). You publish a SHA-256 hash of your sealed seed before tickets go on sale; at draw time you reveal the seed and the specific drand round, and anyone can re-derive the winner.

See how to pick a raffle winner fairly for the full mechanism.

For cash prizes, hold funds in escrow until the winner confirms identity (Stripe Identity or equivalent) and provides payout details. For physical prizes, release the host's share only after delivery is confirmed. On Raffair both happen automatically.

Common mistakes

• Calling a paid raffle a "giveaway". "Giveaway" in UK law usually implies free entry; if money changes hands without a free-entry route, you may be running an unlicensed lottery.
• No published free-entry route. A prize competition's free-entry route has to be obvious, reasonably accessible, and equally weighted with paid entries.
• Holding ticket money in your personal account. Use escrow or a payments platform that ringfences funds until the draw concludes.
• No published rules. Disputes are inevitable; rules cut them off.
• Untraceable draws. Filming yourself spinning a tombola is fine for a village fête; for an online audience use a verifiable RNG.

Primary sources for everything above: Gambling Commission — Lotteries and the Law and Schedule 2 of the Gambling Act 2005.