UK Society Lotteries Pass £1bn as Illegal Risk Rises
UK society lotteries exceeded £1bn in gross gambling yield for the second consecutive year in 2024/25, and good causes received £484.6m from the sector. At the Lotteries Council Annual Conference on 21 May 2026, Gambling Commission Policy Director Ian Angus presented the growth figures alongside warnings that illegal lotteries and consumer harm remain top priorities.
Society lotteries recorded more than £1bn in gross gambling yield between April 2024 and March 2025, up 4.7% year on year. The sector paid out more than £316m in prizes, while good causes received £484.6m, a rise of 4.8%.
The wider UK gambling sector reached £16.8bn in GGY across the same period. Lotteries as a whole accounted for £4.2bn, while society lotteries contributed more than £200m between July and September 2025.
Commission data showed 17% of adults, equal to about 9m people, took part in a society lottery between July and October 2025. That put society lotteries second among gambling products in Great Britain, behind the National Lottery at 32% and ahead of betting at 10%.
Remote sales now form the larger part of the sector. Society lotteries generated £793.3m in remote GGY in 2024/25, compared with £314.9m from non-remote sales.
Ian Angus, Director of Policy at the Gambling Commission, said: “We want to work with you to make sure you can run your lotteries safely and keep on raising money for your good causes and maintain the reputation of your charities and community organisations.”
Illegal Lottery Crackdown
Illegal lotteries remain a clear pressure point. Social media companies removed 356 illegal lotteries in 2025, almost double the 190 removed in 2024. A further 79 had already been removed in 2026.
Across illegal gambling, the Commission issued 741 cease and desist notices, reported 397,527 URLs to search engines and took down or geo-blocked 1,134 websites in the last financial year. Angus said new Treasury funding of £26m over three years will support more enforcement work and a first national risk assessment of Britain’s illegal gambling market.
The regulator also pointed to its 2026/27 business plan, which puts focus on data, early intervention and evidence-based requirements. Angus confirmed society lotteries face no new Gambling Act review implementation commitments this year, with the Commission set to evaluate changes already made.
TGJ Take
Society lotteries now sit in a strong commercial position, but scale brings more regulatory attention. Operators and charity partners should treat the £1bn GGY mark as a compliance trigger, not just a growth story. The illegal lottery numbers matter for licensed brands because social media fraud can erode trust in the whole category. For suppliers and affiliates, proof of licence status and safer-gambling controls will carry more value in partner checks.
