TL;DR: Newfoundland and Labrador charitable lottery licence
- Verdict: Yes, a registered charity or non-profit can sell raffle tickets online in Newfoundland and Labrador, but only through one of two disclosed routes, and the electronic-raffle route requires a certified system that Zeffy is not on.
- What works: Take ticket orders and payments online while printing physical tickets and holding a manual draw. This is the province's own "non-ERS" route and the one most small charities can actually use. The licence fee is 1% of total prize payout, paid after the event with the financial report. Applications go through the Lotteries Portal. Processing typically takes 10 business days once the file is complete.
- What doesn't: Running a fully electronic raffle on any system that has not been certified by an approved independent test laboratory. Conducting a lottery over social media. Delegating the conduct of the lottery to a third party who is not a member of your organisation.
- Ideal for: Community charities, service clubs, parishes and small non-profits running a single raffle, 50/50, or Chase the Ace, who want to sell tickets online without buying into a certified electronic-raffle system.
- Worth considering if: Your prize payout will reach $100,000 or more, in which case a detailed business plan must accompany the application, or if the ticket sale needs to happen entirely electronically, in which case you need a certified Electronic Raffle System supplier.
If your charity or non-profit wants to run a raffle, a 50/50 draw, a Chase the Ace, or a bingo in Newfoundland and Labrador, you need a lottery licence from the province before you sell a single ticket. This page is written for the volunteer or staffer who has been handed the job of getting that licence and running the draw without breaking anything.
Newfoundland is one of the few provinces that publishes two clearly separate online routes for ticket lotteries. Most small charities can use the second one. We put them side by side below so you can see which one fits.
Table of contents
What a lottery licence is in Newfoundland and Labrador
A lottery is any game where someone pays to enter, a winner is picked by chance, and a prize is awarded. That covers raffles, 50/50 draws, Chase the Ace, bingo, break-open tickets, and Monte Carlo nights.
Charitable gaming in the province is regulated by the Department of Government Services. The operational contact is the Consumer and Financial Services Division, and the Lottery Licensing Division handles licences under the direction of the Director responsible for lottery licensing. You'll see older letterhead on some PDFs ("Digital Government and Service NL") and a 2025 advisory that used a different department name; the department has been renamed twice and the government's own documents disagree. Use "Department of Government Services" when you contact them.
Running an unlicensed lottery is a violation of the Criminal Code of Canada. Provincial licensing is the mechanism that makes a charitable lottery legal in the first place.
For a small nonprofit: if you're selling tickets for a chance at a prize, you need a licence. There's no "under $500" or "internal draw" exception that lets you skip it.
Do you need a licence, and who qualifies
Only eligible charitable, religious, and incorporated non-profit organisations with charitable purposes may obtain a lottery licence in Newfoundland and Labrador. A private individual can't. A commercial company can't. A political party can't.
In practice, that includes:
- Registered charities (CRA-registered)
- Religious organisations and parishes
- Service clubs and fraternal organisations
- Community, sporting, and recreational non-profits
- Incorporated non-profits with charitable purposes
Proceeds must go to the charitable purpose you name in your application. You can't redirect them after the fact.
For a small nonprofit: if you're a registered charity or an incorporated non-profit and the money is genuinely going to the cause, you almost certainly qualify. If you're not sure, ask the Lottery Licensing Division before you spend time on the application.
The eight activity types you can be licensed for
Older guidance floating around the internet describes "nine licence types". The regulator's own enumeration lists eight activity types, and the regulation's fee schedule (Lottery Licensing Regulations, NLR 1/02, s.38(2)) lists seven fee categories. If you see a "nine types" list, ignore it.
Here is what the regulator actually lists, with what each one covers:
|
| Ticket lotteries (including door prizes and raffles) | Standard raffles, 50/50 draws, prize draws. This is the one most charities use. | 1% of total prize payout, paid with the post-event financial report |
| Chase the ace | Named as its own activity type in the regulator's list. Progressive weekly draw where the winning ticket-holder picks a card from a deck. | Set under the ticket / lottery fee category, confirmed by the Lottery Licensing Division |
| Bingo | Traditional bingo sessions. | Under the bingo fee category, s.38(2) |
| Breakopen | Pull-tab / break-open tickets. | Under the breakopen fee category, s.38(2) |
| Bingo / breakopen combined | A bingo session that also sells break-open tickets. | Under the combined fee category, s.38(2) |
| Games of chance | Wheels of fortune, dice, and similar games run at an event. | Under the games-of-chance fee category, s.38(2) |
| Monte Carlo | Charity casino-style events with volunteer dealers. | Under the Monte Carlo fee category, s.38(2) |
| Sports lotteries | Sports-outcome-based ticket lotteries. | Under the sports fee category, s.38(2) |
The regulator's full list is on the Department of Government Services lotteries page. Where the fee is expressed as a percentage and the exact amount depends on prize value, confirm the current figure with the Department of Government Services before you file.
For a small nonprofit: for the overwhelming majority of community fundraisers (a raffle, a 50/50, a Chase the Ace), you're applying for a ticket lottery licence, and the fee is 1% of the total prize payout, paid after the event with your financial report. It's not a fee due at application.
Licence fee, licence period and processing time
Three things are worth pinning down before you apply:
- The fee isn't paid up front. For ticket lotteries, the licensee pays 1% of the total prize payout, and the fee is submitted with the financial report. The report is due 60 days after the licence expires. NLR 1/02 s.38(2)(d) puts it plainly: "Where a financial report is required, a licence fee shall accompany the report in the amount of 1% of the total amount of the retail value of prizes and cash given as prizes."
- The licence period is capped. A licence can't exceed 12 months. Where a licence covers a series of events (a weekly Chase the Ace, for example), the period can't exceed 24 months (NL Reg 32/24 s.14).
- Processing typically takes 10 business days once the application is complete and the supporting documents are attached. If your file is missing anything, that clock doesn't start.
Two other numbers matter if your event is larger than a single Saturday-night raffle:
- For a ticket lottery with a potential prize payout of $100,000 or more, a detailed business plan must be submitted with the application.
- The total value of tickets sold for any one event shall not exceed 12 times the total retail value of the prizes, and there must be a reasonable expectation of a 50% return after expenses to the licensee.
For a small nonprofit: plan on 10 business days minimum from a clean submission, and remember the fee is a tax on your prize board, not a barrier at the door. If your prizes total $5,000, the fee is $50.
How to apply through the Lotteries Portal
Applications go through the province's Lotteries Portal. The portal is linked from the government's lotteries page and is the fastest way to file.
Step 1. Confirm eligibility
Confirm the organisation is a registered charity, religious organisation, service club, or incorporated non-profit with charitable purposes. If you're unsure whether your organisation qualifies, contact the Lottery Licensing Division before starting the application. It's a quick conversation that can save you a wasted submission.
Step 2. Read the rules for your activity type
For a raffle or 50/50, read the Ticket Lottery Information Package. For online sales, also read the Online Ticket Sales rules. Both are on the Department of Government Services lotteries page. Skimming is not enough; the online-sales requirements are specific and easy to miss on a first pass.
Step 3. Assemble the paperwork
You will need:
- Organisation legal name and registration details
- Description of the lottery: type, dates, prizes, ticket price, total tickets
- Sample ticket for ticket lotteries (see the province's sample ticket guide)
- Two signing officers, both members of your organisation
- If selling online: platform details, server-location confirmation, IP-verification method, and everything in the online-routes section below
- If the prize payout will reach $100,000: a detailed business plan
Step 4. File through the portal
Submit at lotteries-portal.gov.nl.ca. If the portal isn't workable for you, contact the Lottery Licensing Division for a paper alternative.
Step 5. Wait for written approval
Do not sell tickets, promote the lottery, or take money before the licence is issued. This is the step most first-timers are tempted to rush. If you start selling before the licence arrives and something goes wrong, the unlicensed activity is a violation of the Criminal Code of Canada, not just a paperwork problem. Build the 10-business-day window into your event timeline so you're not waiting on approval the week of the draw.
Step 6. Display the licence and comply during the event
The licence number must appear on all lottery communications. The licence itself must be available at the point of sale. All draws must be conducted before two witnesses, who sign a confirmation of their presence for each lottery event.
Step 7. File the financial report within 60 days of licence expiry
The 1% fee is submitted with the report. Missing this step is the fastest way to have future applications denied.
For a small nonprofit: the portal is the shortest path. The paperwork looks heavy on first read, but for a straightforward raffle it's mostly organisation details, the prize list, and the two things below (server location and physical-ticket confirmation).
The four gates: what a small charity actually has to clear
Provincial rules across Canada come down to four questions. Answer all four before you start selling.
- 1. May the organisation run a raffle at all? Yes, if it's a registered charity, religious organisation, service club, or incorporated non-profit with charitable purposes.
- 2. May tickets be sold online? Yes, but only through one of two disclosed routes. See the next section.
- 3. May tickets be paid for by credit or debit card? Yes, explicitly. Schedule D of the Ticket Lottery Rules, rule 13: "The licensee may accept cheques or credit payments, and shall be responsible for ensuring that the proceeds from ticket sales are validated before the prize is awarded."
- 4. Must the platform itself be licensed, registered, certified, or approved? For the fully electronic route (an Electronic Raffle System, or ERS), yes. The ERS must be tested by an approved independent test laboratory, and an ERS licence application won't be approved without that certification. For the non-ERS online-payment route, the platform isn't certified as an ERS, but the application must disclose the platform, its server location, and how it verifies buyer location.
Gate 4 is the one that catches charities out. Holding a valid licence isn't enough on its own if the system you use to sell tickets was supposed to be certified and wasn't.
For a small nonprofit: if the plan is "we'll sell tickets online through a platform, print the physical tickets, and pull a winner from a bin at the event", you're on the non-ERS route and gate 4 is about disclosure, not certification. If the plan is "the whole draw happens electronically", you need a certified ERS supplier.
The two online routes, side by side
This is what makes Newfoundland's regime unusual and useful. The regulator publishes two distinct online paths and treats them differently.
|
| What it is | The full sale and draw run through a certified electronic raffle system. | Take ticket orders and payments online. Print physical tickets. Draw them manually with a witness. |
| System certification | Required. The ERS must be tested by an independent test laboratory approved by the Director. Without that certificate the licence application won't be approved. | Not required, because there's no electronic raffle system. The platform is used to take payment, not to conduct the draw. |
| Server location | Assets must be physically located within Canada. | The rules for this route state the platform server must be located in Newfoundland and Labrador. The two routes are in tension on this point. Confirm with the Department of Government Services before you file. |
| Random number generators | Governed by the ERS certification. | Explicitly not permitted. The draw is physical. |
| Physical tickets | Not required. | Required. Physical tickets must be printed in accordance with Schedule D and provided to the purchaser. |
| Draw | Electronic, per the certified system. | Physical and manual, using ticket stubs or tokens. Duplicates and mirror images are not acceptable. |
| Buyer-location controls | IP address, credit-card address, and mailing-address checks to keep sales within province. | Same IP, credit-card address, and mailing-address checks. |
| Right fit when | Larger operators with the budget and volume to work with a certified ERS supplier. | Most small charities. This is the route the regulator publishes for organisations that want to take online payment without buying into a certified electronic system. |
The regulator's own wording for route 2 is worth reading before you file: "If an applicant wishes to (i) take ticket orders online not using an Electronic Raffle System (ERS); and (ii) processing payments online, they must follow the requirements for a paper based ticket lottery with a manual draw."
One rule applies to both routes: conducting a lottery event over social media is not permitted in Newfoundland and Labrador. That includes running the sale or the draw itself on a social platform. Promoting the raffle on social media is fine; running it there is not.
For a small nonprofit: route 2 is almost certainly your route. You get the convenience of card payments without needing a certified electronic raffle system. The tradeoff is you still print tickets and pull a stub from a bin, which most volunteers find fine and many organisers actually prefer.
50/50 draws in Newfoundland and Labrador
Yes, a 50/50 draw needs a licence in Newfoundland and Labrador. It fits the definition of a ticket lottery: consideration, chance, and a prize. You apply for a ticket lottery licence, and the same 1% fee on total prize payout applies, submitted with the financial report.
Two things worth knowing:
- A 50/50 typically pays out half the ticket revenue as the prize, which means the 1% fee is 1% of that payout. On a $2,000 prize, the fee is $20.
- The "total tickets sold cannot exceed 12 times the retail value of the prizes" rule needs some thought for a 50/50, because the prize is itself half the ticket revenue. Talk to the Lottery Licensing Division about how to word this in your application if the draw is large.
For a small nonprofit: a 50/50 is one of the simplest events to licence in this province, and route 2 (online payment, physical tickets, manual draw) is a natural fit.
Chase the Ace
Chase the Ace is a Newfoundland format in cultural terms and, usefully, it's named as its own activity type by the regulator. That matters because it removes the "does this even count?" question that Chase the Ace organisers get stuck on in other provinces.
How it works, in one paragraph: participants buy tickets each week for a draw. The winning ticket-holder picks one card from a standard deck. If they draw the ace of spades, they win the accumulated jackpot. If they don't, they win a smaller prize and the deck (now one card smaller) rolls to the next week. The jackpot grows until someone finds the ace.
A few licensing notes:
- Because Chase the Ace runs as a series of weekly draws, the licence can cover a series of events under NL Reg 32/24 s.14, up to a maximum of 24 months.
- The 1% fee applies to total prize payout across the series, submitted with the post-licence financial report.
- Each weekly draw still requires two witnesses who sign a confirmation of their presence.
- You can't delegate the conduct of the draw to a third party who isn't a member of the organisation (NL Reg 32/24 s.13).
The name of this format varies by province. In Manitoba it's often "Chase the Card", in Ontario "Catch the Ace", and elsewhere "Track the Jack". If you're looking at guidance from another province, check that the rules you're reading are actually Newfoundland's.
For a small nonprofit: Chase the Ace is one of the highest-return charitable formats in this province, and the province explicitly licences it. Just remember the witnesses and the report.
Where the money has to land: the trust-account rule and the CRA exemption
This is the trap most first-time organisers miss, and it's usually spotted after the fact rather than before. Where the money lands matters as much as how you sold the tickets.
The default rule in Newfoundland and Labrador is that a licensee must open and maintain a separate designated lotteries trust account. Ticket proceeds go there. Two signing officers, both members of the organisation, are appointed to the account.
The exception is unusual and worth knowing: charities registered with the Charities Directorate of the Canada Revenue Agency are exempt from the separate-trust-account requirement. Verbatim from the regulator: "With the exception of charities, registered with the Charities Directorate of the Canada Revenue Agency, licensees shall open and maintain a separate designated lotteries trust account."
In plain terms:
- If you're a CRA-registered charity, you don't have to open a separate lotteries trust account. Your existing accounting must still track proceeds separately and use them for the charitable purpose you named.
- If you're an incorporated non-profit that isn't CRA-registered, or a service club, or a religious organisation without CRA charity registration, you do need a separate designated trust account with two member signing officers.
One more anti-delegation rule, straight from NL Reg 32/24 s.13: "The conduct, management and operation of a lottery scheme shall be the responsibility of the licensee and shall not be delegated to another organization or person who is not a member of the licensee's organization." A platform can process the payment. It can't run the raffle for you.
For a small nonprofit: figure out which side of the CRA line you sit on before you sell a ticket. If you need a designated trust account, open it during the application, not the week of the draw.
Can you use Zeffy to sell raffle tickets online in Newfoundland and Labrador?
Short answer: for the ticket sale itself, only if Zeffy is the certified electronic raffle system on an ERS application (which it isn't), or as the online-payment channel on a route 2 application whose supporting documents you've written and the Department of Government Services has approved.
Longer answer, gate by gate:
- Route 1 (ERS). Newfoundland and Labrador requires the electronic raffle system to be tested and certified by an approved independent test laboratory, and the licence application won't be approved without that certificate. Zeffy isn't on the province's certified ERS list, so Zeffy isn't the tool for the ERS route. If you need a fully electronic raffle, you'd need a supplier from the regulator's certified list.
- Route 2 (online payment, physical tickets, manual draw). The regulator's disclosure requirements name the platform, its server location, and how it verifies buyer location. This is a "describe your platform to the Department of Government Services and get written approval" situation, not a "certified list" situation. Whether Zeffy fits any specific application depends on the details of your event and the regulator's response.
Where Zeffy genuinely helps, without touching the raffle-licence question at all:
- General donations from supporters who don't want a raffle ticket.
- Automatic tax receipts for eligible donations (raffle ticket purchases aren't tax-deductible, but donations alongside them can be).
- Donor management so the people who supported this year's Chase the Ace hear from you before next year's.
Zeffy, used by 100K+ nonprofits who have raised $2B+ on the platform, is free for the nonprofit. No platform fee, no transaction fee, no credit card fee. Ever. That's the honest role Zeffy plays around a Newfoundland raffle: the event ticketing, the donation page, the receipts, and the donor record, while the raffle itself is licensed and conducted under the province's rules.
Official resources in one place
- Ticket Lottery Information Package, Online Ticket Sales rules, and the sample ticket guide, linked from the Department of Government Services lotteries page
- Lottery Licensing Regulations, NLR 1/02, and NL Reg 32/24
The regulator's contact details are on the Department of Government Services page. Where a figure in this article doesn't match the regulator's current guidance, the regulator wins. Confirm with the Department of Government Services before you file.
Frequently Asked Questions - Newfoundland and Labrador Lottery Rules
How much does an NL lottery licence cost?
For a ticket lottery, the fee is 1% of the total prize payout, paid after the event with the financial report. There's no prize-band tiering at application. Other activity types have their own fee categories under NLR 1/02 s.38(2); confirm the exact amount with the Lottery Licensing Division.
Does a CRA-registered charity need a separate lotteries trust account?
No. Charities registered with the Charities Directorate of the Canada Revenue Agency are exempt from the separate-trust-account requirement. Other licensees (incorporated non-profits without CRA registration, service clubs, and so on) must open a separate designated lotteries trust account with two member signing officers.
Can you sell lottery tickets under 18?
Confirm with the Department of Government Services. The regulator sets minimum age requirements for both sellers and purchasers of lottery tickets in the province.
Does a national charity need a separate NL lottery licence?
Yes. National charitable status doesn't carry a lottery licence with it. You need a licence issued by the Department of Government Services to sell tickets in Newfoundland and Labrador, and a separate licence in every other province where you sell.
.webp)
