Does a school raffle need a licence?

Usually not. A raffle where tickets are sold only at the fair, on the day, is an incidental non-commercial lottery and needs no licence and no registration, as long as no more than £500 of the proceeds is spent on prizes and no more than £100 on expenses. Donated prizes do not count towards the £500. If tickets are sold in advance or online it becomes a small society lottery, which the PTA must register with its local council before selling any tickets.

Can a PTA sell raffle tickets before the fair?

Yes, but selling tickets in advance makes it a small society lottery rather than a fete raffle. The PTA must register with the council for the area where it is based, at a cost of about £40 to set up and £20 a year, before selling a single ticket. At least 20 per cent of the money raised must go to the school or PTA, tickets must all be the same price, and only people aged 16 or over may buy or sell them.

How much can you spend on school raffle prizes?

For an incidental non-commercial lottery at the fair, no more than £500 of the proceeds may be spent buying prizes and no more than £100 on expenses such as printing ticket books. Prizes donated by local businesses have no limit and do not count towards the £500, which is why most school raffles run almost entirely on donations.

When can the raffle be drawn?

For a fete raffle the draw can take place during the event or after it has finished, provided ticket holders have a way to find out whether they have won. Prizes cannot be rolled over into a later raffle. For a small society lottery with advance sales, the draw date is set in advance and printed on the tickets.

How do you ask local businesses to donate a prize?

Approach them six to eight weeks before the fair, ideally in person and with a short letter on school headed paper. Name the event, the date and the cause, say how the business will be credited, and make it easy to say yes by suggesting a voucher or a single item rather than asking open-endedly. Keep a running list of what has been promised and follow up the week before.

How to run a school raffle, start to finish

A raffle is one of the easiest ways a PTA can raise a few hundred pounds at the summer or Christmas fair. Most need no licence at all. The one decision that changes what the rules ask of you is when you sell the tickets.

This is the plain English version, written for a committee that turns over every year and has nobody who did it last time. It covers England, Wales and Scotland, where the Gambling Act 2005 applies. Northern Ireland has its own system and its own forms.

First, the decision that sets the rules

There are two kinds of school raffle in law, and which one you are running comes down to timing, not size.

How you sell tickets	What it is, and what you need
Only at the fair, on the day	Incidental non-commercial lottery. No registration, within the £500 and £100 limits below.
Any sold in advance, or online	Small society lottery. Register the PTA with the council before you sell a single ticket.
Nobody pays to enter	A free prize draw. Outside the Gambling Act, nothing to register.

Most school fair raffles are the first kind. If that is you, skip to getting the prizes donated. If you want to sell tickets in the playground at pick-up for two weeks beforehand, read the next section first.

The fete raffle: what the limits are

Incidental non-commercial lottery

The ordinary school fair raffle. No licence, no registration, no council form, provided all of the following hold:

Tickets are sold only at the fair, while it is running. No advance sales, no online sales, nothing sold at the school gate the week before.
No more than £500 of the proceeds is spent buying prizes. Prizes donated by businesses or parents do not count towards this and have no limit.
No more than £100 of the proceeds goes on expenses, such as printing the ticket books.
The fair itself is not run for private profit.

The draw can happen during the fair or straight afterwards, as long as ticket holders can find out whether they won. Prizes cannot be held back and rolled into next year's raffle.

Selling tickets in advance: the extra step

The moment a ticket is sold before the day, including through a link online, it is a small society lottery. This is the part that catches PTAs out, because it still feels like the same raffle.

Small society lottery

Register the PTA with the council for the area where it is based. It costs roughly £40 to register and about £20 a year after that. Apply well ahead: some councils take a few weeks.
At least 20 per cent of the money raised must go to the PTA's purposes. The rest can cover prizes and costs.
Every ticket must be the same price, and must be paid for before it goes into the draw. No free tickets, no sale or return in the draw itself.
Tickets may only be sold by and to people aged 16 or over.
Each ticket must show the PTA's name, the ticket price, the draw date, and the name of the licensing authority.
Send the council a short return within three months of the draw, showing tickets sold, prizes, expenses and the amount raised for the school.

A PTA usually qualifies to register, but the council decides. Ask them before you print anything, and do not sell an advance ticket until the registration is confirmed.

Getting the prizes donated

A school raffle runs on donated prizes. This is the part every PTA finds hardest, and most of the difficulty is in the asking, not the getting.

Start six to eight weeks out. Closer than that and businesses have already committed their goodwill budget for the term.
Ask in person where you can. A parent walking into the café they already use, at a quiet time, gets a yes far more often than an email does.
Take a short letter on school headed paper. Name the school, the event, the date, and what the money is for. Give a contact and a date you will collect by. It gives the manager something to show the owner.
Make it easy to say yes. Suggest a voucher, a single item or a small bundle rather than asking open-endedly. Businesses that cannot give stock can often give a service.
Say how they will be thanked. A named list on the night, a mention in the newsletter and a thank-you afterwards is worth more to a small business than the prize costs them.
Keep one list. Business, prize, promised or collected, who is chasing. A shared sheet stops three parents asking the same shop and stops prizes being forgotten on a hallway table.

Good prizes for a school crowd: a family meal out, a haircut, a hamper, garden centre or bookshop vouchers, a case of wine for the grown-ups, tickets to a local attraction, a football signed by the local club. One or two strong headline prizes sell more tickets than a long tail of small ones.

Pricing and printing the tickets

Cloakroom ticket books, the kind with a numbered ticket and a matching numbered stub, are the standard and cost a few pounds. Write the buyer's name or a phone number on the stub as you sell, so you can find a winner who has gone home.

A price of 50p or £1 a ticket, or £5 for a strip of five or six, is typical. For a fete raffle you can price however you like. For a small society lottery every ticket must be the same price, so decide the strip price is just a bundle of single-price tickets, not a discount.

Selling on the day

Put a table by the entrance. People buy on the way in, not on the way out.
Bring a float of coins and small notes, and more pens than you think.
Display the prizes, or a photo board of them, next to the table.
Have two people on it at busy times so nobody walks off while one seller is mid-transaction.
If you take card payments, a simple reader is fine. The raffle takes no money through any third party on your behalf.

The draw, and the note that proves it was fair

Draw the winning numbers from a box, a bag or a drum, in front of people, or straight after the fair closes. Ask someone independent of the PTA committee to pull the tickets or to watch.

Then write down, on the day: the date and time, how many tickets were sold, how the winners were picked, who drew and who witnessed it, and the winning numbers. Nobody may ever ask for it. If a parent does query the result weeks later, that note is the difference between an answer and an awkward silence.

If you sold tickets in advance

You also owe the council a return within three months: tickets sold, total raised, spent on prizes, spent on expenses, and the amount that went to the school. Keep the paperwork for a year in case they ask to see it.

Handing out the prizes

Call the numbers, match each to its stub, and tick them off your list. Put unclaimed prizes on a board with the winning numbers and a date to claim by, usually a week or two. Announce it in the newsletter. Redraw anything still unclaimed after the deadline rather than holding it over, since a fete raffle prize cannot roll into a later draw.

The whole thing on one page

When	Do
6 to 8 weeks before	Decide on-the-day or advance sales. If advance, register with the council. Start asking businesses for prizes.
2 to 3 weeks before	Buy ticket books. Confirm prizes and collect what you can. Draft the thank-you list.
On the day	Sell from a table by the entrance. Names on stubs. Draw in front of people. Write down how it was done.
The week after	Chase unclaimed prizes, then redraw. Thank the businesses. If advance sales, send the council return within three months.

This is a plain English summary, not legal advice. Your council is the authority on registration in your area, and the Gambling Commission publishes the rules in full. Check with them before committing to anything, especially if you plan to sell tickets in advance.

Where Prize Desk fits

Two parts of this are more work than they sound: collecting entries if you sell online, and handing out prizes when there are dozens of winners and dozens of donated prizes. Prize Desk gives you one link for entries, draws the winners with a random number generator and a certificate recording how it was done, then sends each winner a private link to pick their own prize from what is left, so nothing is promised twice. It never sells tickets or handles money, so it does not change which set of rules above applies to you. It is free.

Set up a raffle Read the rules in full

Sources, checked for this page: the Gambling Commission guidance on raffles at events, the Gambling Act 2005 (Incidental Non-Commercial Lotteries) Regulations 2007, and the Gambling Commission guidance on small society lotteries. Fees vary by council, so confirm the figure with yours. Questions about the page are welcome via the site.