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Playing in a Group


Playing in a group can increase the fun and excitement of playing The National Lottery. Groups can be made up of friends, family or work colleagues. It’s a great way of playing The National Lottery and by following a few simple guidelines playing should be easy and enjoyable.

For example, let’s say you and nine of your friends decide to form a group, each putting in £1 a week for each draw. Instead of buying one set of six numbers you’ll have an equal share in ten sets of numbers, giving your £1 ten times more chances of winning a prize. So if your group won a jackpot of £2,000,000 your share would be £200,000.

Getting Started

The first thing you must do when setting up a group is to decide who’s going to be in it, how much they’re going to pay each draw and the corresponding percentage share of any prize, and whether they'll play for Saturdays only, Wednesdays only, or both.

It’s a good idea to appoint a manager. This person will be responsible for the running of the group, purchasing the tickets and the collection and division of the winnings.

Under The National Lottery Game Rules, a prize on a winning ticket is payable to one person only and this should, we suggest, be the manager of your group. The manager should write their name and address on the back of the ticket and keep it safe. It will be that person’s responsibility to share out the winnings with the other members of the group.

If there is no group agreement and the winner of a prize transfers part of it to others, these gifts may attract Inheritance Tax. If the members of the group can prove that the distribution of the prize was made in accordance with a group agreement entered into before the win no liability to Inheritance Tax will arise. (It is important to remember that Inland Revenue law and practice may change; the comments on Inheritance Tax are based on our understanding of Inland Revenue practice as of November 1994.)

Your Group Agreement

When you’ve decided who’s going to be in the group and before you start to play, you should draw up a group agreement. We suggest that the agreement should include the following...

Key Points to Remember

The agreement must be signed and dated by each group member and should be witnessed by, we suggest, a solicitor, doctor or someone of similar standing.

If the group changes a new agreement should be drawn up.

Copies should be given to each member and the original kept in a safe place, as the Inland Revenue may require to see it as evidence of the group agreement.

How to Play in a Group

There are two ways for your group to play The National Lottery: By single draw or by Multidraw.

Collecting Money from the Group

Whether members pay their money for each draw or in advance, a record should be kept of who’s paid what so everybody knows where they stand. Remember it is a good idea to decide what you are going to do if one of the members of the group can’t pay for a particular draw, just in case the situation arises.

Buying the Tickets

The manager will be responsible for purchasing the tickets. Before this can be done playslips must be completed with the group’s numbers. Each set of numbers will cost £1 per draw. Playslips should be taken to a National Lottery Retailer who will give you your lottery tickets which record your numbers and the draw date(s) for which they’re entered.

Your tickets should be kept safe as they will be required to claim a prize. It’s important that the manager writes his/her name and address on the tickets. You may like to make a photocopy of the ticket(s) for each of your group’s members.

Look out for the Winning Numbers

Winning numbers will be drawn live every Saturday and Wednesday evening on a BBC1 show and broadcast on BBC Radio 5 Live. They will also be available in national newspapers and clearly displayed in all National Lottery retailers. Remember also, winnings should be collected by your manager and shared out according to your group agreement.

IMPORTANT: The National Lottery does not encourage entries made by or on behalf of commercial and advertised syndicates and is not liable to make payments of any prize on a ticket which it knows or suspects has been resold or otherwise transferred by way of trade. There is no facility for the bulk purchase of tickets.

Each group member must be 16 years or over to play The National Lottery.

We hope that these guidelines are useful. They are, though, given without any legal liability on our part, and we would advise you to consider having a solicitor prepare the form of agreement.