Can you run a raffle on Facebook?

It depends on the type of raffle. In the UK, you cannot legally sell raffle tickets online — including on Facebook — unless you hold a Gambling Commission operating licence or work with a registered External Lottery Manager (ELM). This rules out most small society raffles, school PTAs and community groups.

What you can do legally is use Facebook to promote your raffle and then sell the physical tickets in person. This is what the vast majority of our customers do, and it works extremely well. You post about your raffle, share the prizes, build excitement — but the actual ticket sale happens face to face.

For more on the legal requirements, see our section on running a raffle legally.

Facebook does not allow raffles or lotteries to be run through its platform. Its community standards and advertising policies prohibit gambling and lottery content, which includes selling raffle tickets via posts, groups or Facebook Marketplace.

Facebook does allow you to promote an event or fundraiser, so you can create a post or event page that tells people about your raffle, lists the prizes and explains how to buy tickets in person. You just cannot process the ticket sale itself through Facebook.

Many raffle organisers we work with create a Facebook event for their draw date and use it to post updates, add new prizes and remind people to buy tickets before the deadline. This is perfectly fine and is one of the most effective promotional tools available.

If you are using Facebook only to promote your raffle and selling the physical tickets in person, you just need the standard small society lottery registration with your local council — £40 initially, then £20 per year.

If you actually want to sell tickets online through Facebook or any other website, you would need a full Gambling Commission operating licence. This is a significantly more involved and expensive process, and is generally only practical for large national charities. Most small society raffles should stick to promoting online and selling in person.

No, not legally for most organisations. The Gambling Commission requires an operating licence or a registered External Lottery Manager (ELM) to sell lottery tickets via the internet, and Facebook's own policies prohibit it as well.

What works instead is using Facebook to drive people to buy tickets in person. Post your raffle details, share photos of the prizes, tag the businesses that donated them, and tell people where they can buy tickets. A well-run Facebook campaign can significantly boost ticket sales even though the actual sale happens offline.

You can promote your raffle on Facebook through organic posts, event pages and group posts — but you cannot run paid Facebook ads for raffles. Facebook's advertising policies prohibit paid promotion of lotteries and gambling content, and a raffle falls into that category.

Organic promotion is still very effective. Create a Facebook event for your draw date, post regular updates about new prizes, share photos and tag the businesses that donated them. You just cannot boost the post or run it as a paid ad.

A raffle is a game of chance — winners are drawn at random from ticket holders. A competition is a game of skill — entrants must demonstrate skill or knowledge to win, such as answering a question or submitting a creative entry.

This distinction matters because Facebook allows competitions (often called "giveaways") but does not allow raffles. Many Facebook "raffles" are actually prize competitions where the organiser asks a question like "guess the number of sweets in the jar" to add an element of skill. This takes it outside gambling law and into competition law, which has different rules.

If you are running a genuine raffle for charity with printed tickets and a random draw, do not try to disguise it as a Facebook competition. Use Facebook to promote it, but run the raffle itself through proper channels with physical tickets and a fair draw.

The best approach is to use Facebook as a promotional channel alongside physical ticket sales. Here are the most effective alternatives our customers use:

• Create a Facebook event for your draw date and post regular updates about prizes and ticket availability.


• Set up a free web page (we offer one with every order) with your raffle details and share the link on Facebook.


• Use WhatsApp groups, email lists and school newsletters to reach potential buyers directly.


• Print flyers and posters — we can produce these alongside your raffle tickets — and ask local businesses to display them.


• Sell tickets at school gates, club meetings, local events and through family and friends.

In our experience, the raffles that sell the most tickets use a combination of all these methods rather than relying on any single channel.

Create a Facebook event for your draw date and use it as your central hub. Post regular updates: announce each new prize as it is confirmed, share a countdown to the draw and remind people where they can buy tickets in person.

Visual posts perform best — share a photo of the prizes rather than just listing them in text. Tag the local businesses that donated prizes (they will often reshare), and ask your committee members and volunteers to share the event to their own networks. A school PTA with 10 parents sharing to their friends list can reach thousands of people in a single evening.