The Gambling Commission has announced today new forthcoming requirements intended to make it easier for consumers to understand where money raised from society lottery ticket sales goes.

From 4 April 2018, changes to the Commission’s Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (“LCCP”) will require all lottery promoters to:

• make it clear to consumers before they buy a lottery ticket exactly which society or charity the lottery proceeds are going to, and
• publish what proportion of money raised from lottery ticket sales in the previous year was returned directly for the purposes of the society.

The changes followed a consultation between July and September 2017 on new codes for society and local authority lottery operators, as well as external lottery managers, to improve transparency for players.

Having considered the responses provided, the Commission has published its consultation response document (downloadable below) that sets out the proposed new and amended LCCP provisions that will come into effect next April.

Update: On the same day that the above announcement was made, a Parliamentary debate (on the future of society lotteries, the Health Lottery and limits on prize values) concluded with cross-party support for deregulation of society lottery financial limits.