How do I manage my charity's lottery licence or Ofcom registration?

Contents

• What registrations does my charity need and why?
• How do I register for a lottery licence?
• How do I renew an existing lottery licence?
• My charity wasn't registered with the PSA, how do we register with Ofcom?
• My charity was registered with the PSA, how do we register with Ofcom?

What registrations does my charity need and why?

In order to be part of the GiveCircle Lottery, your charity must have a valid lottery licence and be registered with Ofcom as a premium rate service.

Lottery Licence

Whilst GiveCircle is registered as an External Lottery Manager, charities that fundraise via our lottery still need to hold a valid licence. If your lottery has proceeds of less than £250,000 then a small lottery licence can be obtained from your local authority. If your lottery grows to have proceeds of greater than £250,000 then a full lottery licence needs to be obtained from the Gambling Commission. Please note that proceeds refers to the total value of tickets sold, not just the portion received by your charity.

Ofcom registration

As supporters have the option to pay for their lottery tickets via their mobile phone, both GiveCircle and any of our partner charities need to be registered with Ofcom as a premium rate service.

How do I register for a lottery licence?

If you do not already have a lottery licence, you should register for a small lottery licence with your local authority. This covers lotteries with proceeds of up to £250,000 each year, which is plenty to get started with. Larger lotteries require a licence from the Gambling Commission.

Typically you will need to complete a short form from your local authority and pay £40 to obtain a lottery licence. The turnaround time is normally around two weeks. Your local authority is usually based on your charity's registered address.

To get started, search your local authority's website for information about small lottery licences. If you're having trouble, let us know and we'll be happy to help.

How do I renew an existing lottery licence?

In order to renew your lottery licence, you should find your existing licence to identify which authority you're regulated by. This will either be the Gambling Commission or your local authority.

If you have a full lottery licence with the Gambling Commission, this will be renewed from within the Gambling Commission's eServices portal.

If you have a small lottery licence with your local authority, then you will typically be required to complete a form and pay a renewal fee of £20.

My charity wasn't registered with the PSA, how do we register with Ofcom?

In order to run a Mobile Lottery your charity must be on Ofcom’s Premium Rate Services Register. You need to register at least 5 working days before launching your Mobile Lottery.

In order to register, you should follow the process outlined on this page of the Ofcom website.

Here is some guidance to help with completing the registration form:

2.6 - your charity will register as a Merchant

5.1 - GiveCircle Lottery

5.2 - Society lottery to raise funds for charities including Merchant

5.3 - Premium rate text and direct carrier billing

5.4 - 72700, 72220

5.5 - 72700, 72220

5.6 - help@givecircle.com, 0333 4444 111

5.7 - GiveCircle Ltd

5.8 - GiveCircle Ltd

My charity was registered with the PSA, how do we register with Ofcom?

Regulatory responsibilities have recently been migrated from the Phone-paid Services Authority (PSA) to Ofcom, so if you were previously registered with the PSA some of your details should have been transferred across to Ofcom.

Ofcom will likely send an email with a link to an online form to complete, to register your charity with Ofcom's Premium Rate Service (PRS) Register. 

When asked 'type of provider' you should select 'Merchant'

When asked to add a service, you should add the lottery and provide the following details:

Due to the way the form has been designed, you may need to submit the form multiple times to add multiple service access methods and service numbers.

If you have not been contacted by Ofcom, we would suggest contacting PRSRegistration@ofcom.org.uk