Warning for organisers of promotional lotteries

Monday 06 October 2014

Businesses are breaking the law by running promotional lotteries without the necessary clearance from the Jersey Gambling Commission.

The commission – which regulates gambling in the Island – has seen an increase in the number of firms running promotional lotteries without registering with them or keeping the basic paperwork required.

Although this is a breach of the law, the commission wants to remind everyone about the rules and requirements before it goes to the stage of taking action against anyone.

The Chief Executive of the Jersey Gambling Commission, Dr Jason Lane, said that the requirements were not onerous, and that the commission had a duty to make sure that people taking part in any kind of gambling were being treated fairly.

He said: “This is not a heavy-handed system, all that applicants have to do is spend five minutes filling out a form, pay a small fee and keep some basic records about who enters and how the draw is carried out in case there’s a complaint later on. Up until a year ago, these lotteries were entirely illegal – we have changed the rules to bring them in, but we need to make sure that the process is fair to everyone taking part.

Through their work in reforming and modernising Jersey’s gambling legislation, the commission made promotional lotteries legal last year. Any business that wants to run a promotional lottery – where entrants typically qualify to go into a draw for a prize by making a purchase – simply has to fill out a basic form, pay a £50 application fee and keep some records.

Promotional lotteries tend to be run on a “spend £20 in the store and enter a draw to win a washing machine”-basis. For the avoidance of doubt, free competitions on social media – where you have to “like” or “follow” a business to qualify for a prize – do not fall under the remit of the commission because it does not cost anyone anything to enter them.

Dr Lane said: “If anyone is in any doubt about what qualifies as a promotional lottery and whether they need to register, they can just give us a call and we will talk it through with them.”

Companies will still be allowed to carry out free prize draws as before without a licence, but anyone who wants to run a commercial prize draw should read the guidance on the commission’s www.jgc.je website.