IBAS receives relatively few disputes from customers of society (charity) lotteries and so the dispute avoidance advice we can offer is limited.
Our general advice to customers would be to raise any questions about how the lottery works at the time that their ticket is bought and to take care of any tickets purchased, particularly where there is no apparent record of the purchaser’s identity being taken.
Where a lottery operator offers the opportunity for customers to subscribe to a regular repeat purchase of tickets, operators must make clear the terms of this repeat purchase and leave the customer in no reasonable doubt as to what they are subscribing to. Operators must not change the terms of the subscription, including the volume of tickets purchased or the ticket price, without giving the customer due notice by an appropriate means of communication and – subject to the terms of subscription – may not be permitted to change the terms of the subscription at all. Customers who enter into subscription arrangements must accept responsibility for ensuring that the funds to be collected by Direct Debit or other agreed method will be available on the day that the subscription is due. The Panel accept that for a gambling transaction to be valid, unless otherwise agreed between customer and operator, the transaction must have been paid for before the draw takes place.