Lottery Licence
Lottery licences are required for charitable gaming, including bingos, 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.
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.
Charitable organizations provide programs for:
- Poverty relief
- Advancement of education
- Advancement of religion
- Other charitable purposes that benefit the community.
Forms
Types of lotteries
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 licence
A 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.
- Application
- Conditions
- Raffle Report [PDF] | [Excel]
Break open ticket
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 Licence
A 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.
- Application
- Conditions
- Break open ticket report [PDF] | [Excel]
Bingo events
Regular bingo
Regular 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 bingo
A 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 bingo
Table 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 Licence
A 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.
- Application
- Conditions
- Bingo report [PDF] | [Excel]
