Enabling society lotteries to use phone payment

Many of us regularly buy raffle or lottery tickets to support your local sports club or charity. It’s a win-win for all concerned. Supporters can enjoy the possibility of winning a prize at the same time as supporting a good cause, which of course gets a boost to its revenue. The traditional way of entering these lotteries was to buy a paper ticket. However, in the 21st century there are many new and emerging ways of doing this, including phone payment.   

Phone payment has proved successful in adjacent sectors. Donating by text is one innovation that has been hugely popular, both with donors, and with non-profit professionals. It offers speed, convenience, and a secure service which potential supporters can have trust in - It’s estimated that over £110 million was given to charities via text in the last financial year.  

Society lotteries have the potential to benefit from phone payment too. And we are keen to support society lotteries to do this through effective and appropriate regulation. That’s why we’re proposing to introduce Special conditions for society lottery services that are intended to build confidence in the market, back compliant providers, and reduce any risk of consumer harm.

Good regulation has played a vital role in the growth of text messages as a widely-used and well-trusted form of giving. Good regulation can play an important part in doing the same for society lotteries. The proposed special conditions deliver clarity by bringing together all the applicable elements of our regulation in one place.   

We want to hear from everyone who has an interest in text giving and society lotteries. We’re running a consultation on the proposed conditions until the 17th April 2018. If you have thoughts on this issue, please do get in touch by that date.  

We’re committed to delivering a healthy and innovative market in which consumers can charge content, goods and services to their phone bill with confidence. With your input, we can continue to do so for society lottery services and we hope that in doing so, everyone can be a winner! 

View the consultation in full here.