Further research reveals that a single £40 fee, and registration with the Local Authority – local to the lottery organiser’s primary address – is all that is required to run a lottery (a ‘Small Society Lottery’) or any number of such lotteries, even if there is no option for free entry. The limit is the total value of ticket sales. That’s £20,000 for any one draw, or £250,000 for all draws aggregated over a year. If those limits are exceeded then it will have to be counted as a ‘Society Lottery’, and will have to be registered with the Gambling Commission, and will be subject to a far higher fee. Treating it as a ‘Small Society Lottery’ is probably the best solution as it leaves open the possibility of having an option for free entry without that being an absolute legal necessity determined by the legal framework under which the scheme is being run.
(If there is a clearly marked payment-free method of participation on equal terms then any such scheme will not be legally classed as a lottery at all, and will not be subject to the same regulatory regime at all.)
In any case, I am confident that the scheme can be run, and can be run affordably, ethically, and legally.
I had published a couple of posts on another web site, but a non-interactive one. I want the site to be interactive though, and to allow comments, so I’m in the process of switching to a WordPress site.
Soon, very soon, I will add a couple of pages which explain the whole Lottery Party idea.