Lottery Licence
Lottery licences are required for charitable gaming including bingo, raffles, break open tickets and social gaming events held by charitable and religious organizations.
Charitable organizations are regulated by licencing policies and the terms and conditions of the licences. For more information and resources please visit the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario website.
If you are intending to run an online lottery, applications must go to the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario.
Lottery Licence Eligibility
Canada’s Criminal Code permits charitable and religious organizations to conduct a lottery to raise funds if a licence has been issued. Organizations must have a demonstrated charitable or religious mandate to qualify.
If you believe you qualify, please submit an Eligibility to Conduct a Lottery Application along with your lottery licence application to our Licensing Administrator.
Types of lotteries and applications
| Raffle lotteries |
A raffle lottery is a game where tickets are sold for a chance to win a prize at a draw. This includes 50/50 draws, elimination draws, penny sales and calendar draws.
Raffle Municipal licenceA municipality may issue a licence to eligible local charitable or religious organizations for ticket raffle lotteries where the total value of the prizes to be awarded is not more than $50,000. |
| Break open ticket |
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A break open ticket is a lottery ticket that has a perforated cover window tabs. Behind the tabs are symbols that are revealed by tearing open the cover tab. The winning combination of symbols is specified on the back of the ticket. Break open tickets are also known as "Nevada tickets" or "pull tabs". Break Open Ticket Municipal LicenceA municipality may issue a licence to eligible local charitable or religious organizations where the break open tickets are not to be sold in conjunction with another gaming event. |
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Bingo events |
Regular bingoRegular bingo events are lottery games where players purchase bingo paper and win prizes by being the first to complete a specified arrangement or pattern of numbers on the bingo paper from randomly selected numbers. Regular bingo events have prize boards that aren't more than $5,500. Media bingoA media bingo event is a bingo game that is conducted on or through media such as the radio or the newspaper. Licences will not be issued for Internet gaming activity. Table board bingoTable board bingo is a game where players purchase the table board card and win prizes by being the first to complete a specified arrangement or pattern of numbers on the table board bingo device from randomly selected numbers. Bingo Municipal LicenceA municipality may issue a licence to an eligible charitable or religious organization for regular, media or table board bingo events where the total value of the prizes to be awarded on any one occasion is not more than $5,500. |
