The Gambling Commission
Whilst you may be surprised to read it, that innocuous sweepstake you run every World Cup, Grand National or Wimbledon Championship is actually classified as gambling, and in more specific terms, a lottery.
In the UK, gambling is regulated by the Gambling Commission, which under the Gambling Act 2005, created eight different categories of lottery:
- Private society
- Work
- Residents’
- Incidental
- Customer
- Small society
- Large society
- Local authority
As you would expect, your office sweepstake falls under the category of ‘Work’ lottery.
Ensuring your sweepstake is legal
The good news is, you don’t need a licence to run an office sweepstake. However, there are a number of regulations in place, some of which you may have previously, albeit unintentionally, broken.
You must all work from the same location
The people taking part in the sweepstake must all work from the same premises. This means, if your business operates from multiple sites, each sweepstake must be contained within one specific site.
For example, at Rapid Formations we have an office based in London and an office based in Glasgow. The people in our Glasgow office can not take part in the London office sweepstake, likewise, the people in the London office can not take partake in the Glasgow sweepstake.
Unfortunately, this means people who work entirely from home can not legally take part in the office sweepstake.
Selling tickets and the draw
Everyone taking part in the sweepstake must be issued a ticket when they make payment.
Luckily, the Gambling Commission have no strict rules on what must be printed on a ticket for it to be considered legitimate. So, using the World Cup as an example – when someone pulls a name in the draw, the physical piece of paper with a country name on it could be considered the ticket.
Individuals taking part must pay before they are issued a ticket, IOUs (when someone gets a ticket and assures payment at a later date) are not permitted.
Tickets must be sold physically at the place of work, they can not be sold over the phone, email, live chat tools (such as Teams), or video conferencing tools (such as Zoom).
Sweepstakes must be a game of chance, people can’t see the name they are choosing when picking the name (this would be classified as ‘betting’). The actual draw (the picking of the names) must be conducted at the office.
Everyone must pay the same price for a ticket, ‘mate’s rates’ are not allowed!
You can…
- Use the funds raised as a cash prize
- Use the funds for a charity donation
- Use some of the funds as a cash prize and some for a charity donation
- Use some of the funds to reasonably cover expenses
You can not…
- Swap tickets (they are non-transferable)
- Make any profit
- Roll the prize fund over to another sweepstake
If the rules are broken
The Gambling Commission are entitled to launch criminal proceedings that could result in a fine or even imprisonment.
Thank you for reading this article
So there you have it, how to ensure your office sweepstake is legal. We hope you have found this post helpful as you strive to run a successful and legally compliant business.
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