DCMS update on society lottery sales limits and prize draws

On 26 June 2025, Baroness Twycross, the Minister of State for the Department for Digital, Culture Media and Support (DCMS) provided a written update to the House of Lords on the Government’s position on statutory limits for society lotteries and prize draws.

Society lotteries

Baroness Twycross confirmed that society lotteries provide valuable funding for good causes across the country.

Society lotteries are required by law to give a minimum of 20% of proceedings to good causes.

Currently, subject to a licensees’ relevant operating licence category, the maximum permitted annual sales limit on society lotteries is £50 million, which was increased from £10 million in 2020 due to challenges that society lottery operators were facing to operate within the limit.

In December 2023, within the White Paper published by the previous Government, a commitment to research was made to look at the current society lottery sector and whether there should be any further changes made to the sales limit.

Following this research, a copy of which can be found here, the Government has confirmed that there will be no further changes to the current annual society lottery limit of £50 million at this time.

Prize draws

The Government has announced they will be introducing a voluntary code for prize draw operators later this year.

Free draws and prize competitions do not currently require a licence under the Gambling Act 2005, as long as they meet the specific requirements under the Gambling Act 2005.

The Government has seen the free draw and prize competition market grow significantly over the past few years, currently worth £1.3 billion annually.

The code will help to provide a uniform approach across the sector to strengthen player protections, increase transparency and improve accountability of prize draw operators.

A copy of this research can be found here.

If you have any questions on either of the above topics, then please do not hesitate to reach out to Felix Faulkner, Licensing solicitor on 07495 497199 or f.faulkner@popall.co.uk

We will provide an update later in the year once the Voluntary Code is released by DCMS.