School Raffles

School raffles are among the most common lotteries in the UK. They are typically run by the parent teacher association (PTA), friends of the school, or the school's governing body, and they operate under the same legal framework as any other raffle — the Gambling Act 2005. Whether the raffle is a simple draw at the summer fair or a planned Christmas raffle with advance ticket sales, the type of raffle determines the registration requirements, ticket rules, and reporting obligations.

Who Runs the Raffle: School or PTA

The first question is which organisation is legally running the raffle. This determines who registers with the local authority, who appoints the promoter, and who submits the return.

The PTA (or friends of the school) is usually a separate entity from the school — either a registered charity or an unincorporated association. If the PTA runs the raffle, the PTA registers as a small society lottery with the local authority, appoints its own promoter, and submits returns under its own name.

The school itself may run a raffle through its governing body. In this case, the school registers with the local authority. The headteacher or a governor typically acts as promoter.

The distinction matters because the registration, the tickets, and the return must all name the same society. A PTA raffle with tickets naming the school (rather than the PTA) is technically non-compliant — the society on the ticket does not match the registered entity. Whichever body is running the raffle must be consistent across registration, tickets, and reporting.

In practice, most school raffles are run by the PTA. The PTA holds the registration, the PTA treasurer or chair acts as promoter, and the PTA submits the return.

Registration

A school fair raffle where tickets are sold and drawn at the fair operates as an incidental lottery — no registration is needed. The raffle must meet all incidental lottery conditions: tickets sold at the event only, draw during the event, no more than £500 deducted from proceeds for prizes, no more than £100 for expenses.

A planned raffle with tickets sold in advance — the typical PTA Christmas raffle, Easter raffle, or summer raffle — requires registration as a small society lottery. The PTA registers with the local authority where the school is located. The fee is £40 initially and £20 per annual renewal.

Once registered, the PTA can run multiple draws throughout the year under the same registration, provided each draw stays within the per-draw limit (£20,000 proceeds) and the annual total does not exceed £250,000.

Safeguarding

School raffles involve children's environments, which introduces safeguarding considerations that do not apply to most other raffle settings.

DBS checks. Parent volunteers selling tickets at school events or at the school gates are typically operating under the school's or PTA's safeguarding arrangements. Whether a DBS check is required depends on the nature and frequency of the contact. A parent selling tickets at a one-off event alongside other adults is unlikely to require a DBS check. A volunteer regularly present at the school gates over several weeks may fall within the school's safer recruitment policy. The school's safeguarding lead can advise.

Data handling. Ticket stubs collect personal information — names and contact details. This data is subject to the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). The PTA should have a privacy notice explaining how personal data collected through the raffle will be used, stored, and deleted. In practice, raffle stub data is retained for the three-year record-keeping period required by the Gambling Act and then destroyed.

Communication with parents. Letters or messages sent home about the raffle should clearly identify who is running it (the PTA, not the school, if applicable), the purpose, the ticket price, and the draw date. The communication should not pressure parents to participate — participation in a raffle is voluntary.

Age Restrictions

Under the Gambling Act 2005, no person under the age of 16 may purchase a lottery ticket. This applies to all raffle types, including incidental lotteries at school events.

At school fairs and events, tickets must be sold to parents, carers, and adult visitors — not to pupils. A child handing over money on behalf of a parent is a grey area; the safest position is that the transaction occurs between the seller and an adult.

There is no restriction on children winning prizes. A ticket purchased by a parent can win a prize that the child enjoys. There is also no restriction on children being present during the draw or helping with non-sales tasks such as setting up the prize display.

Selling Through Book Bags

A common practice in primary schools is to send raffle tickets home in children's book bags for parents to purchase and return with payment. This is advance selling — not event-only selling — and it means the raffle cannot operate as an incidental lottery. The PTA must be registered as a small society lottery before using this sales method.

The process requires careful administration:

• Each ticket allocation sent home should be recorded (which family received which ticket numbers).
• Payment and returned stubs must be reconciled against the allocation.
• Unsold tickets must be returned and accounted for.
• The ticket price must be uniform — no discounts or multi-buy offers, as the small society lottery rules apply.

The book bag method extends reach beyond the event itself, but it also increases the administrative burden and the risk of lost tickets or unreconciled payments. A clear system for tracking allocations, returns, and payments is essential.

School Fair Raffles

A raffle at a school fair — summer fair, Christmas fair, Easter fair, or similar — is the simplest format. If tickets are sold and the draw takes place at the fair, the raffle operates as an incidental lottery with no registration required.

The conditions are:

• tickets sold at the fair only (not in advance, not sent home beforehand)
• draw takes place during the fair
• no more than £500 deducted from proceeds for prizes
• no more than £100 deducted for expenses
• results announced at the fair

School fairs frequently run both a raffle and a tombola. Each operates as a separate incidental lottery, and each must independently meet the conditions — the £500 prize limit and £100 expense limit apply to each lottery separately, not combined.

Bundle pricing is permitted at incidental lotteries. "£1 per strip" or "50p each, 3 for £1" are both compliant at a school fair raffle. This flexibility does not extend to advance-sale raffles run as small society lotteries.

Involving Children

Children cannot buy raffle tickets, but they can participate in running the raffle in age-appropriate ways:

• helping to set up the raffle table and prize display
• assisting with the tombola stall (handing out prizes, not handling money)
• being present during the draw

Children should not handle cash, sell tickets, or be left unsupervised in roles that involve interaction with adults they do not know. The school's or PTA's safeguarding policy should guide decisions about the extent of children's involvement.

Reporting

For incidental lotteries (school fair raffles), no return is required.

For small society lotteries (advance-sale raffles), the PTA must submit a return to the local authority within three months of each draw. The return must include total proceeds, amounts deducted for prizes and expenses, and the amount applied to the PTA's purposes. The return must be signed by two authorised members of the PTA committee.

The PTA must retain all raffle records — ticket stubs, financial records, draw records, and copies of returns — for at least three years. These records may be inspected by the local authority at any time during the retention period.

If the PTA runs multiple raffles per year (Christmas, Easter, summer), each draw requires its own return. The annual proceeds from all draws combined must not exceed £250,000. For a detailed guide to the return process, see Returns and Reporting.

Questions about school raffles? See our help centre.

Last reviewed: February 2026