Department of Community Services

Lotteries, Raffles, Bingos

The Office of the Registrar of Lotteries

  1. Reviews licence applications.
  2. Conducts background investigations.
  3. Provides technical and professional gaming advice.
  4. Audits financial records.
  5. Conducts field audits.
  6. Enforces terms and conditions of licences.
  7. Liaison's with charities.

The Registrar, Deputy Registrar, or Gaming Inspectors appointed under the Act do on-site inspections of gaming events.

Only charitable or religious groups may qualify for a gaming licence. Profits must be used for charitable or religious purposes. Conducting a gaming event without a licence is a Criminal Code offence.

Eligibility Guidelines

Each application is reviewed on its own merit. The following guidelines are used to assist in the review. A non-profit organization is not necessarily a charitable organization. A charitable organization must provide a public service or a community benefit to qualify for licensing.

Programs Requirements

Each application is reviewed on its own merit. The following guidelines are used to assist in the review. A non-profit organization is not necessarily a charitable organization. A charitable organization must provide a public service or a community benefit to qualify for licensing.

  • Relief of Poverty or Disease:
    This includes relief to the poor, programs for the elderly so they can remain active in society and provides educational or social programs for the emotionally or physically distressed.
  • Advancement of Religion:
    This includes advancement of any recognized religion. Established religious organizations and churches are considered to be charitable organizations through the provision and maintenance of places of public worship and other religious purposes.
  • Advancement of Education and Learning:
    This includes student scholarships, aid to schools, assistance to libraries and museums, preservation of cultural heritage and assistance for the performing arts and humanities.
  • Other Purposes Beneficial to the Community as a whole:
    This includes making improvements to the quality of health, supporting medical research, and assisting medical treatment plans. Also included is the advancement of any cultural, recreational, athletic or other activity or program beneficial to a significant portion of the community or the encouragement of physical fitness through organized competitive amateur activity and providing community use facilities.

Membership and Activities

Membership in a charitable organization must be voluntary and the executive of the organization must be chosen from its volunteer base. Members, directors and officers must not receive remuneration. Activities should benefit the community at large, rather than the self-interest of its membership.

Structure of the Organization

The organization should be structured on a not-for-profit basis, by Certificate of Incorporation, constitution and by-laws. This structure should ensure that it is the broad-based volunteer membership that effectively controls the organization's activities in establishing and maintaining its charitable or religious purposes. The society must be registered and in good standing.

Exception: If the lottery is a raffle that will have a revenue of less than $1,000, then the licence can be issued to any religious or charitable organization.

Use of Proceeds

Eligible organizations can only use gaming proceeds in two ways:

  1. To pay prizes and expenses directly related to the conduct and management of the gaming activity for which they are licensed.
  2. To support charitable or religious objectives.

The only allowable uses of gaming proceeds are those which have been identified on the applications and approved by the Registrar. If an organization wishes to amend any of the proposed uses of gaming proceeds, the amendments must be submitted in writing, by an executive officer of the licensee to the Registrar for approval prior to any expenditure being made.

The Registrar evaluates each specific item on the application to determine whether the proposed use of proceeds relates directly to the organization's charitable or religious activities.

The following are examples that may be considered eligible expenditures of gaming proceeds:

  • Purchase or rental of equipment, furnishing and supplies that are essential to the delivery of the organization's charitable services or programs. Ownership of these purchased items must remain with the organization. Items of a personal nature may not be purchased with gaming revenue.
  • Cost for providing specific educational equipment and supplies that would otherwise be unavailable. In this type of expenditure, the ownership of assets would be vested in the institution or school.
  • Relief for individuals or families in personal distress or the victims of a physical disaster. This type of expenditure could include medical equipment or apparatus not normally available to individuals through the health insurance system.
  • Gaming proceeds cannot be used for travel expenses without the prior approval of the Registrar. A travel itinerary including estimated expenses must be submitted for review.
  • Donations to other charitable or religious organizations including those outside the Yukon as approved by the Registrar.
  • Wages, salaries if the services provided are essential to the groups work in the community; duties require technical skill; any individual being paid has specialized qualifications; duties cannot be reasonably performed by volunteers, and duties are not administrative.

Submitting Applications

To apply for a licence, an application form must be completed and submitted to the Registrar. Raffles, bingos and casinos each have their own application forms that are available from the Consumer Services Branch. Outside of Whitehorse applications for raffles, bingos and casinos are normally sent out upon request.

Raffle, bingo and casino applications should be submitted at least two weeks before the projected starting date of the event to allow time for processing and mailing.

Filing Financial Reports

Upon completion of the gaming event, records and a financial report must be provided to the Registrar. Forms and instructions are available at the Consumer Services office. Applicants are required to become knowledgeable about the requirements outlined within the Act for financial accountability.

It is required that the financial reports of each lottery run by the organization are up-to-date and complete before further licences can be granted.

Types of Gaming Licences

  • Do you need a gaming licence? (PDF 32KB)
  • Raffle Licence:
    Lottery scheme where tickets are sold on a random chance of winning a prize, excluding break-open and scratch tickets but including schemes such as 50/50 draws, calendar draws, sports pools, rubber duck races, poker runs yet not as to restrict the generality of the foregoing.
  • 50/50 Draws:
    This raffle lottery is commonly referred to as a 50/50 draw or a roll ticket draw. Regulations on this draw state that the tickets are to be sold in one room and the draw is held in the same room within 7 hours of when the ticket sales start. The prize is awarded to the person who presented the matching number as the ticket part that is drawn. These draws may award prizes other than cash (examples are groceries, meat or any other prize approved by the registrar).
  • Early Bird Draws:
    These are early draws that will lead up to a chance to win the main prize. During these draws, the early bird winning tickets must be returned to the draw in order that the early bird winner also has a chance to win the main prize.
  • Sport Lotteries Pool Board:
    This is a lottery board established in relation to a sports event or series of sports events and licensed as a raffle.
  • Bingo:
    Bingo is a form of charitable gaming that is conducted by eligible charitable or religious organizations that have obtained a bingo licence from Consumer Services. Volunteers of the licensed organization conduct and manage the bingo.

Raffle rules for Sports Lotteries Pool Board's will include:

  • name and address of the licence holder;
  • the sports event and its date, or the series and its dates;
  • the prizes;
  • the scores and times;
  • the number of squares printed;
  • the price per square;
  • the licence number;
  • the score / time must not be disclosed until all squares are been purchased;
  • ice pools participants choose their own time; and
  • a sample of the board must be provided to the Registrar.

Raffle rules will include:

Awarding the prizes beginning with the most valuable prize first, and so on. The more valuable prizes must be drawn before the tickets of the less valuable prizes.

  • A copy of the licence must be available for anyone who asks to see it.
  • All advertisements must state the licence number.
  • The control of the raffle is the responsibility of the licence holder.

License Ticket Sale Values

The licence fees for a raffle is determines by multiplying the number of tickets by the cost of the ticket:

$1,000 or less $10
$1,001 to $5,000 $25
$5,001 to $10,1000 $50
$10,001 to $15,000 $75
$15,001 to $20,000 $100
$20,001 to $25,000 $125
$25,001 to $30,000 $150
$30,001 to $35,000 $175
$35,001 to $40,000 $200
$40,001 to $45,000 $225
More than $45,000 $250

Example: If your licence is to sell 1,000 tickets at a price of one dollar each, your fee is $10 (1,000 tickets X $1 per ticket =$1,000 licensed ticket sales value).

  • Only the number and price of the tickets specified in the licence may be printed.
  • A sample of the ticket must be provided to the Registrar.
  • Tickets must be numbered consecutively.
The ticket stub must include the following:
  • the ticket number,
  • the licence number, and
  • space labelled for the name, address, and telephone number of the purchaser.

    The customer's portion must state:

  • the name and address of the licence holder,
  • when and where the draws will be made,
  • the kind and value of prizes,
  • the number of tickets printed,
  • the ticket price,
  • the ticket number,
  • the licence number.
    • Unsold tickets must not be given away or bought by the holder of the licence.
    • Tickets must not be sold or advertised outside the Yukon (they may be sold to people visiting the Yukon).
    • There must be a record of all ticket sellers and the serial numbers.
    • The number of tickets sold must be recorded and the sale money must be accounted for.
    • Once the licence has been issued, changes can only be made with the written consent of the Registrar.
    • The draw for the date of the lottery cannot be changed after the lottery tickets have gone on sale.
    • All prizes described in the licence must be awarded even if the revenue from the lottery is not enough to pay for the prizes.
    • If the total value of the prizes exceed $5,000 a guarantee is needed for all the prizes.
    • The prizes for each game must be awarded to the winners of that game.
    • People cannot be required to win another game before receiving the prize for a game they have already won.
    • Terms and conditions that are stated in the licence must be adhered to by the organization.

    Bingo

    Bingo is game of chance where:

    1. A ball is selected at random from 75 'ping pong' type balls each printed with a letter from the word 'Bingo' and a number from '1' to '75'.
    2. The letter and the number on the selected ball is announced to the players.
    3. Immediately after each announcement, the players indicate whether the letter and number combination appears on a card, sheet or screen by marking or placing a marker upon the corresponding square; and
    4. The game continues until a winner is declared.

    Bingo event:

    • Is an event where successive bingo games are played as outlined in the licence.

    Bingo rules will include:

    Established house rules describing all aspects of how the bingo will be run (e.g. how the games will be called, how calls will be recorded) must be made by the organization. These rules are posted for everyone to see.

    • A copy of the licence must be displayed.
    • All advertisements will have the licence number on them.
    • The licence holder is responsible for the control of the bingo.
    • People who help run the bingo cannot play and they cannot have other people play for them.
    • There is no liquor to be sold or consumed during a bingo game.
    • Cards and tickets cannot be sold outside the Yukon.
    • No organization can run a bingo for more than 104 days a year.
    • The fee for a bingo is $10.00 for each day the bingo is licensed to run.
    • Once the licence is issued changes can only be made with the written consent of the Registrar.
    • All prizes described on the licence must be awarded even if the revenue from the lottery isn't enough to pay for them.
    • If the prizes are more than $5,000.00 a guarantee for the prizes is required before the licence can be issued.

    Casinos

    • A casino licence authorizes the formation of a casino for operation up to 3 days consecutively.

    Casino Event: Is the event at which various games of gambling such as blackjack and wheel of fortune are played.

    Casino Games: Are the games known as blackjack, roulette, wheel of fortune and such other games as may be approved by the Registrar.

    • A copy of the licence must be available for players to examine it when the games are being played.
    • All advertising must state the licence number.
    • House rules for blackjack and other games must be established (how the games will be played, betting limits, pay-off odds). Blackjack must be played with cards face up.
    • There cannot be charge for admission where casino games are played.
    • It is the responsibility of the licence holder as to the control of the game regardless of who helps to run them.
    • People who are helpers cannot play or have anyone play on their behalf. When they are not helping they may play any game other than the one they just finished helping with.
    • Game players must stay out of the pit area.
    • People under 19 years of age are not allowed to play.
    • A game bank must be maintained in a separate room that only the manager and cashiers are allowed to enter.
    • The betting limits stated on the licence cannot be exceeded.
    • Cash only must be used to purchase playing tokens or chips.
    • There must be a bank set up where the players can buy and cash in the chips or tokens.
    • Tokens or chips must be used for all betting and winnings.
    • The banker must supply each game operator enough tokens or chips to operate the game. When the operators receive or cash in the chips, they must sign a receipt.
    • A record must be kept of all tokens and chips supplied to game operators, returned by game operators and cashed in by players.
    • At the end of each game the operator must account for all chips or tokens at the table or game and must return them to the bank.
    • Once the licence is issued, it can only be changed with the written consent of the Registrar.
    • The fee to run games is $5 for each gaming table for each day the casino is licensed to run.
    • No organization can be given a licence to run a casino for more than three days in a row.
    • The following information is a summary of policies, licensing procedures, terms and conditions -- It is not an authoritative guide to lotteries in the Yukon.