Raffles and Lotteries – a brief guide
Some raffles and lotteries will need to be licensed. It is, therefore, important to consider what type of
lottery or raffle you are planning before you start. Listed below are two common examples:
(a) Small Private Lotteries
These are where the ticket sales are confined to employees of a workplace or a club, often using
cloakroom style tickets. There is no requirement for raffles of this kind to be registered.
When running a private lottery, only staff or club members can purchase the tickets. In the case of a
raffle in a company branch, customers should not be able to buy tickets.
Raffle tickets sold exclusively at an event (e.g. concert, show, jumble sale) also fall in this category and
do not need a licence.
(b) Public Lotteries
You may not be able to class your raffle under the heading ‘Private Lotteries’ for example, if you are
mailing out tickets to individuals in the post, if you are advertising the raffle to customers, or if the value
of the prizes will be more than €4,000.
In this case, you will need to apply for a licence to the District Court for the area in which the lottery
will be held. This can be done on any given Wednesday. An individual from the organisation would
need to act as the license holder on the license application, and comply with the regulations of
the Gaming and Lotteries Act, 1956. The total value of the prizes must not exceed €20,000 to be
awarded in any one week but an amount greater than this could be awarded at intervals.
Prior to filing with the District Court, you must notify the Gardai 28 days in advance of the license
application. This notice period is absolutely necessary.
The Association of Charity Lotteries in Ireland (ACLI), a forum for Irish charitable organisations who
depend on the running of lotteries as a means of fundraising, have developed a Code of Practice to
promote standards of good practice for the operation of charity lotteries in Ireland. All members of ACLI
have signed up to this Code of Practice and promote their lotteries in accordance with the Code.
This is an initiative funded by