The Definitive Legal Guidelines for having a Casino Night in the UK

There are two major reasons why people host and plan a casino night in the UK:
1) For charity and fundraising purpose.
2) For party and entertainment purposes.
If you have arrived at this page, it is likely that you are looking to organise a casino night as a fundraising event and you wish to ensure that everything is above board and in compliance with UK gambling regulation.

I have created this post/document to put your mind at rest and to make sure you have a clear legal framework without the complex legal jargon you will across from other sources. Here are the things you need to know:

A) You will likely need to use a casino night service supplier, use our Dealer Search Page. These casino night suppliers do not need any form of license to service your fundraising casino night.

B) You do not need any special permission from the government, gambling commission or local police to hold your casino night.

C) Your casino nights must be non-commercial as defined in the Gambling Act 2005. Non commercial means that your casino night must not be for private (personal) gain. For example, do not raise £6,000 for your local school and pay yourself £1,000 of that amount seeing as you did such a good job.

D) If you are the main organiser of the casino night, it is advisable to avoid drawing any questionable expenses from the proceeds. There are occasions where you may have to take time off work due to organisational responsibilities or incur some unavoidable and reasonable expenses such as for petrol, travel and phone calls. In these instances, it is important to record these expenses and document them to other persons who are helping you organise the event or to the charity you are trying to raise funds for.

E) Proceeds can be raised by charging people for an entry fee to the casino night, or by selling them a chips (or play money) to participate in table games present at your casino night.

F) Costs incurred for putting on the casino night (such as venue hire, catering or casino night hire) can be deducted from the amount raised.

G) The motivation for attending a charity casino night must not be to win a significant cash prize. It is important for the organiser to ensure that the majority of the proceeds are donated to the charity in question as opposed to being allocated to a prize fund for the winners of the casino night.

H) What will need to hold my casino night in a specially licensed venue? No. You can hold it anywhere as long as the proprietor of the venue is happy to host a casino night. Bear in mind that some proprietors of venue, will not even consider holding a casino nigth because they are unsure of UK gambling law.

I) if you are having a corporate poker night or fun casino night, and it does not have a charity or fundraising objective, you are not allowed to give cash prizes of any description. Prizes must also not be perceived to be the main incentive for attending the evening, so it is advisable to keep them "small". For corporate casino nights there is normally no charge for guests to play and it is up to the host company to incur the cost of organising the casino night and also the cost of the prizes.

J) If you are having a private casino for fun (birthday party, engagement party), please keep as point (I) above.

K) If you feel you must bring real money gambling into the equation, it is 100% essential that your casino night event takes place on licensed casino premises, see this comprehensive list ) for example. You and your guests are expected to abide to the particular house rules of the casino you choose to hire.

Tip 1: If the entry fee per person for your casino night fundraiser is £100, do not give away more than £25 of that in prizes. Try to keep the next £25 allocated to paying for the cost of organising the casino night. This ensures at least £50 goes to the charity.

Tip 2: Find a good casino night service supplier, use our Dealer Search Page. There are hundreds of good service providers. Let them take control of your evening. They know the law inside out and it is always in their interest to ensure that no laws are being broken during your casino night.

If you need one last final confirmation that your casino night is within the confines of the law, here is what the UK Gambling Commission has to say on the matter. If you really have time on your hand, the department of culture and media, also try to do their own rather complicated take on the legality of a casino night See here