MenuRaffle policies
Law and Disorder Policy
British Red Cross conducts their raffles through CFP Lottery & Raffles Ltd - a registered External Lottery Manager (ELM) licensed by the Gambling Commission. CFP Lottery & Raffles Ltd operate a platform which complies with all relevant codes and remote technical standards.
The ELM (CFP Lottery & Raffles Ltd) operates the payment function and are responsible for the payment of income back to the charity. Ticket and chance distribution records are available for police checks.
British Red Cross will only use gambling software (a Random Number Generator (RNG)) produced by CFP Lottery and Raffles Ltd which has been approved by the Gambling Commission.
Banking reports are issued by the ELM (CFP Lottery & Raffles Ltd) to an agreed schedule. They will provide contact and payment details of any monies received.
Protection of Customer Funds
All funds from your ticket purchase are credited to a client account held with Natwest on behalf of raffleplayer.com, which is entirely separate from raffleplayer.com’s trading accounts. This is a key requirement of the Gambling Commission's licence compliance and is there to protect both you and the charity. When a raffle takes place, proceeds are paid directly from this account to the charity.
Fair and Open Draws
We operate a combined online/offline draw ensuring that each entrant has an equal chance of winning each prize. The draw will be conducted by utilising a Random Number Generator that has been tested and approved by an independent, Gambling Commission approved, third party test house in combination with a blind draw in plain sight of staff. The results of the draw are final.
We publish draw results on our website and in letters to players. Rules are also available on our website. Rules and results are always available on request.
A list of winners’ names (and their towns) will also be published on the British Red Cross website within two weeks after the draw date. If you win a prize and would prefer that your name and town is not disclosed publicly, please email supportercare@redcross.org.uk. We may still need to provide this information to a regulator if challenged, to demonstrate that a valid lottery has taken place.
A record is kept of both online and ticketed sales, as well as tickets not purchased but distributed regardless of whether they are returned or not.
British Red Cross will reserve the right to offer alternative prizes of equal value if, due to circumstances beyond its reasonable control, the stated prizes are no longer available.
There is an additional Charity Complaints Procedure.
Player’s Queries and Complaints Procedure
Telephone complaints
Our ELM's advisers (CFP) handle initial complaints and queries and will complete a log sheet detailing the caller’s and advisor’s contact details, the nature of the complaint and steps taken to resolve the complaint.
If an initial complaint cannot be resolved, we are notified immediately of the issue and will resolve it internally.
In the event that a telephone or online complaint cannot be resolved by the ELM (CFP) or representatives of British Red Cross, CFP will provide free third-party arbitration via IBAS. All general queries will be logged and held for future reference. Our ELM (CFP) will retain these telephone log sheets for three years.
Written Complaints
Our ELM’s administration team (CFP) will respond to complaints and queries within 48 hours of receiving the complaint.
The subsequent logging and resolution procedure is that of telephone complaints.
Complaints log sheets and written complaints are retained by our ELM (CFP) for three years.
In the event that a written complaint cannot be resolved by the ELM (CFP) or representatives of British Red Cross, CFP will provide free third-party arbitration via IBAS.
All general queries will be logged on the log sheets by the ELM (CFP) and held for future reference.
Protecting Children & Vulnerable People through Age Verification
At the British Red Cross, we take steps to ensure that our lotteries do not appeal to children and have measures in place to prevent underage players from taking part:
> We screen our in-house database to remove anyone who we know to be under eighteen from our lottery direct marketing lists
> When we are promoting our lotteries, we do not include any imagery or wording which might particularly appeal to children
> Players must be over the age of 18 to purchase chances, and this is detailed on the back of all tickets and entry forms produced
> Our online and offline lottery communications warn people that underage gambling is an offence before they can buy a ticket
> We require people purchasing a lottery ticket online to affirm that they are old enough to take part before paying
> Any player who provides dishonest information regarding their age automatically forfeits the right to any prize
> Where we suspect a lottery player be underage, we will carry out online age verification checks and if necessary contact them to establish their age
> If we are unable to verify the age of a player, the payment will be returned
> If we are able to verify the age of a player, and they are found to be under the minimum age of entry to one of our lotteries to them, we will return the entry money and any prize they have won will be forfeit
> Where we recruit players by person or by telephone, we will always confirm their age by asking for their date of birth before they can buy a ticket
> Once payments have been successfully processed, a confirmation email is sent to entrants confirming their playing status. This email includes a self-certification statement confirming the entrant is over 18 years of age.
Responsible Gambling / Problem Gambling Procedure
The following procedures have been put in place to encourage people to gamble responsibly and seek help should gambling become a problem:
> Our website carries information encouraging people to gamble responsibly and recognise the signs of problem gambling. We also include the National Gambling Helpline and gambleaware.org website details for people to refer to should they need further help.
> The National Gambling Helpline number and gambleaware.org website address is included on all tickets and entry forms to lotteries as well as our website address that includes information on gambling.
> Players can request a self-exclusion to be added to the British Red Cross database so that they are removed from further addressed lottery communications including post, telephone, email and SMS. All self-exclusion requests along with the date of the request will be captured on to the record on the British Red Cross database and will be in place for a minimum of six months. All reasonable steps will be taken to prevent any self-excluded individuals participating.
> To self-exclude please see our self-exclusion policy on our Problem Gambling page.
> Staff are trained on self-exclusion and will signpost counselling and support services.
> To stop receiving unaddressed mail delivered by your postman, visit the Royal Mail website (link is external).
> A restriction of 50 chances per customer will be in place unless customer interaction occurs. Without customer interaction chances will not be entered into the draw. Interactions will be recorded and where the chances are purchased beyond the limit, records will be kept for 3 years.
> All relevant sources of information will be used to identify customers at risk of problem gambling.
> Lotteries are only conducted with an External Lottery Manager (CFP) who is registered with the Gambling Commission (licence number 000-000-584-R-103711-007)
