You don't need a licence to hold a small society lottery, but you do need to be registered.

Definition of a small society lottery 

A small society lottery has two distinct criteria:

• its society status - it must be non-commercial
• its size. 

A society is non-commercial if it's for any of the following:

• charitable purposes
• enabling participation in, or of supporting, sport, athletics or a cultural activity
• any other non-commercial purpose other than that of private gain.

Size of the lottery

The total value of tickets to be put on sale must be £20,000 or less for a single lottery (or there's an aggregate value of no more than £250,000 for all lotteries in a calendar year).

If the total value of tickets in your lottery or lotteries is more than these amounts, you need to license your lottery with the Gambling Commission.

How to register

Please note that you must do both of the following:

• Register with the licensing authority in the area where you have your main office
• Be registered for the full time that you're promoting the lottery.

You are able to apply for a new registration or to renew your existing registration below. Please note you will be required to set up or sign into your account:

Apply online for small society lottery registration or renewal

For postal application, you need to download and complete an application form. You also need to complete a society constitution form.

Download the small society lottery and society constitution application forms

Send the completed forms together with your licensing fee to:

Licensing
Fourth floor
The Woolwich Centre
35 Wellington Street
Woolwich SE18 6HQ

Registration fees

There's a registration fee of £40 and an annual renewal fee of £20.

Cheques need to be payable to The Royal Borough of Greenwich.

Payment of renewal fees

For societies previously registered under the Lotteries and Amusements Act 1976, you need to pay annual fees between 1 November and 31 December each calendar year.

For societies not previously registered under the Lotteries and Amusements Act 1976, you need to pay annual fees during the period of two months ending on the anniversary of the registration.

Once you're registered

Returns

You have to send a returns form after each lottery that you hold with information including the proceeds of the lottery.

Download a lotteries and amusements returns form

Change of promoter

You need to tell us if your promoter changes so we can keep your records up to date.

Inform us of a change of promoter