UK Regulator Tracks Illegal Lotteries Moving Through TikTok – iGamingToday.com – News, insights and Slots review

The UK Gambling Commission received more reports of suspected illegal lotteries and raffles promoted on TikTok in 2025 than it did a year earlier. The rise has pushed the regulator to look more closely at a form of gambling that can be difficult for users to recognise in the first place.

The Commission examined how these draws are run, why people enter them and whether participants understand that some may be unlawful.

The investigation did not find the activity confined to TikTok. Similar lotteries were found on Facebook and Instagram, widening the problem beyond a single platform.

The research involved 4,233 UK residents aged 16 and over. Participation was relatively small across the population, but the figures changed sharply by age.

On TikTok, 10% of 18- to 24-year-olds said they had entered an individual-led lottery or raffle. Another 34% had encountered one on the platform. Participation dropped to 2% among 35- to 44-year-olds and to less than 1% among people aged 45 and above.

Facebook recorded participation from 5% of respondents, while TikTok and Instagram each recorded 3% overall.

The problem starts with recognition

The Commission’s research suggests that many people do not approach these promotions as gambling.

Social media draws can be packaged around countdowns, live announcements and familiar giveaway language. A host may build a following, show previous winners and encourage viewers to take part. To someone scrolling through a feed, that can look closer to an online promotion than a lottery.

The legal test is more straightforward.

Under Section 14 of the Gambling Act 2005, an activity will generally constitute a lottery where participants pay to enter, a prize is offered and the winner is selected by chance. Commercial or private lotteries are generally prohibited unless they fall within a permitted category. Licensed society lotteries and certain smaller lotteries registered with local authorities are among the exceptions.

Free draws and genuine prize competitions can operate outside gambling licensing rules, but they must meet specific legal conditions. A prize competition, for example, needs to rely on genuine skill, judgement or knowledge rather than simply chance.

The distinction is important because the person buying a ticket is not the one committing the offence. The legal risk falls on the operator of an unlawful lottery.

Yet the research found little evidence that participants understood where that line was.

In interviews with nine players and one lottery host, none clearly recognised that paying for a chance to win a prize could create gambling licensing obligations.

Their checks were different. People looked for visible winners, trusted familiar hosts or relied on recommendations from friends. The main fear was often being scammed, rather than entering an unlicensed gambling operation.

That creates a practical problem for enforcement. A participant who believes they have entered an ordinary giveaway is unlikely to report it as illegal gambling.

A crowded prize-draw market adds another layer

The findings also land at a time when commercial prize draws have become increasingly visible in Britain.

Some operators can legally offer free draws or prize competitions without a Gambling Commission licence if their arrangements comply with the Gambling Act. A voluntary code for prize draw operators came into effect in May 2026, but the code is not legislation and does not turn compliant prize-draw businesses into licensed gambling operators.

For consumers, the difference can be much harder to see.

Researchers found that some respondents even identified legitimate free-draw operators when asked about individual-led lotteries and raffles. The names and formats can look similar, despite the legal differences behind them.

That leaves the Commission facing a problem that cannot be solved simply by telling users to be more careful.

Its research points towards stronger monitoring and intelligence sharing, alongside a greater role for the social media companies where the promotions appear. The regulator is also considering how platforms themselves might intervene when potentially unlawful lotteries are identified.

For now, the clearest finding is less about how many people are entering these draws than how easily the activity can blend into ordinary social media content. The younger the audience, the more likely they are to encounter it.

And when a lottery does not look like gambling, the people taking part may be the last ones to realise that anything needs reporting.

Source: www.thelines.com