Lifeboat Lottery terms and conditions

The RNLI is the charity the save lives at sea. 

If you have any questions that are not covered below, call our Supporter Experience team on 0300 300 9920. Lines are open Monday - Friday 8am - 6pm. Or you can email [email protected]

In 2023 the RNLI received £2,889,141 in Lifeboat Lottery ticket sales and 75% of money raised by the Lifeboat Lottery went directly towards the RNLI contributing towards its lifesaving mission, 2% on prizes and 23% on expenses.

The estimated likelihood of winning a prize for the Q2 Anniversary Lottery 2024 is 1 in 17,113 per single entry purchased. Actual figures may vary.

1. By entering the Lifeboat Lottery you agree that:  
a) you are 18 years of age or over;
b) you are a resident of England (excluding the Channel Islands and Isle of Man), Scotland or Wales;
c) you will not buy an entry to this Lottery on behalf of anybody under the age of 18;
d) you will provide accurate entry information and accept that it is your responsibility to keep us informed of any changes as soon as they arise, including the change of your contact details;
e) you will comply with these terms as well as the rules and regulations of the Gambling Commission under legislation laid down in the Gambling Act 2005 and any further instructions or rules issued by the Promoter from time to time.

2. Each ticket you purchase is converted into a single ‘entry’ that is then entered into the electronic draw. Winners are chosen at random using a Random Number Generator. The random generator software has been tested and approved by an independent test house approved by the Gambling Commission. We identify you as the winner using your supporter number unless you have sold tickets to family or friends too, in which case the ticket number is used to identify the winner.

3. The winners will receive one of 50 prizes:

• 1st prize winner - £5,000
• 2nd prize winner - £2,000
• 3rd prize winner - £500
• 4th prize winner - £250
• 5th prize winners - 10 x £100
• 6th prize winners – 36 x £25

4. You can purchase entries for the RNLI Lifeboat Lottery by post or over the phone. Each £1 entry you purchase is entered into our electronic draw. You may purchase up to a maximum of 150 entries per transaction and up to a maximum of 150 entries per person in total per Lottery. Our lottery mail pack is addressed and mailed to individual supporters to enable us to meet each individual player’s needs. However, if you also have a Joint Membership with the RNLI, both members can purchase a maximum of 150 entries each.

a) Playing by post
If you are an existing supporter, you may receive lottery tickets in the post. Tickets cost £1 each and are sent out in books of 10 and you will receive a maximum of 5 books. Each ticket you purchase is converted into a single ‘entry’ that is then entered into the electronic draw. Tell us how many entries into the draw you would like by sending back the Response Form along with your payment. Ticket numbers are not used in the draw itself - we identify your entries using your supporter number.

When selling tickets to friends or family and also purchasing some yourself, complete contact details on all Ticket Stubs and send these to us along with the Response Form and payment. Every ticket purchased is converted into an entry that is then entered into the electronic draw. If selected as a prize winner, the ticket number is used to identify the person who purchased it. 

All entries must be submitted by posting your Response Form, payment and any Ticket Stubs to: RNLI, West Quay Road, Poole, BH15 1HZ. 

You can make the payment in one of the following ways:
i. By cheque or postal order made payable to RNLI (Sales) Limited; or
ii. By completing your card details on the Response Form.
Due to internal processing, credit card payments will go through RNLI, which will then be transferred to RNLI (Sales) Ltd and at the end of the year, any profits are donated to RNLI.
b) Playing over the phone
You can purchase entries for the RNLI Lifeboat Lottery on your debit card only by calling our Supporter Experience team on 0300 300 9920. Payments go through to RNLI (Sales) Ltd and at the end of the year, any profits are donated to RNLI.

5. If you decide to make a donation alongside your payment for the lottery entries, all the donations received in connection with the RNLI Lifeboat Lottery will be paid into RNLI. 

6. Winners will be notified by phone, email or post and results will be published on the Winners section of the website and may also be included in Lifeboat magazine, and in promotional material for subsequent lotteries.

7. Your purchase of the Lifeboat Lottery entries is from the RNLI (Sales) Limited (“the Promoter”), in accordance with these terms as amended from time to time.

8. Underage gambling is an offence. You must be 18 years or older to play the RNLI Lifeboat Lottery. We may contact you at random to verify your age. We will also contact you to verify your age if there is any suggestion you may be under 18. Any person who has entered a draw who is under 18 years old will automatically forfeit any prize and will be excluded from future entries. Subject to clause 9 below, if someone under 18 years old is found to have participated in the Lottery after the lottery draw has taken place, then we will make three attempts to contact the participant - via phone, letter or email and unless we have been unsuccessful in contacting the entrant, we will make a full refund of the purchased lottery entries to that person and any prizes that might otherwise have been due to them will not be paid out. If prizes have already been paid out, all reasonable attempts will be made to recover them. Whilst every effort is made to not send any of our lottery packs to persons under 18 years old, in the unlikely circumstances when our pack is received by someone who is under 18, they or their legal guardian must inform us immediately. In any case, the lottery tickets cannot be sold to or sold by a person who is under 18 years of age.

9. You accept that we may be unable to provide refunds once you have purchased your Lottery entries. 

10. The opening and closing dates for the RNLI Lifeboat Lottery 2023 are listed below and may be subject to change. Any entries received after the closing date for each lottery will not be considered and will be treated as a donation.

• New Year Lottery 2024 – Open date 8 January 2024. Close date 29 February 2024.
• Anniversary Lottery 2024 – Open date 8 April 2024. Close date 23 May 2024.
• Summer Lottery 2024 – Open date 1 July 2024. Close date 22 August 2024.
• Christmas Lottery 2024 – Open date 30 September 2024. Close date 28 November 2024.

11. Should a returned response form not be legible or completed in full, making it impossible for us to distinguish whether the intention is to purchase a lottery ticket or to make a donation, then any accompanying money will be treated as a donation. 

12. The Promoter accepts no responsibility for any purchases which are not completed for any reason. 

13. The Promoter may reject any application without giving reason at its absolute discretion if it has reasonable grounds to do so. No detail in the application may be changed in any way once it has been submitted, except for a change of address. The Promoter reserves the right to refuse entry or refuse to award the prize to anyone in breach of these terms and conditions.

14. We will endeavour to notify the winner by phone or email in the first instance and will post the letter confirming their win with their cheque (using contact details on the entry form/provided on the ticket stub) within 5 working days of the draw date. If we do not have a telephone number, email address or cannot reach the winner, they will just be notified and sent their cheque by post (using contact details on the entry form/provided on the ticket stub). A postal address must be provided to claim the prize and it is your responsibility to notify us of any change of address. If a winner does not bank a cheque within 6 months, then their prize will be forfeited and the prize money will be void/cancelled unless the winner requests the prize to be treated as an RNLI charitable donation. 

15. All entrants are solely responsible for providing RNLI with their accurate and up-to-date contact details and RNLI will be in no way liable for any failure or inability to contact any entrant due to any errors, omissions or inaccuracies in the contact details that the entrant has provided. In the event that the entrant changes their contact details, they will be solely responsible for advising RNLI of the change.

16. The Promoter reserves the right to publish and use for promotional purposes, the winners’ names which will be published on the Winners section of the website. and may also be included in Lifeboat magazine and in promotional material for subsequent lotteries. The winners’ details will be in summary form i.e. Mrs [surname] from [county/ town]. We may also look to publish any image and/or quote from the winners, subject to them being happy with providing us with this information and consenting that we publish it. 

17. The decision of the Promoter regarding any aspect of the prize draw is final and binding and no correspondence will be entered into about it. 

18. The Promoter reserves the right to hold, void, cancel, suspend, or amend the Lottery where it becomes necessary to do so - we would retain any amounts which were paid prior to any such suspension/ cancellation taking effect and we would notify you of further details. RNLI Lifeboat Lottery 2024 draw dates are listed below and may be subject to change.

• New Year Lottery 2024 draw date – 18 March 2024.
• Anniversary Lottery 2024 draw date – 10 June 2024.
• Summer Lottery 2024 draw date – 9 September 2024.
• Christmas Lottery 2024 draw date – 16 December 2024.

19. RNLI staff/volunteers/trustees and their families are able to participate in the RNLI Lifeboat Lottery unless they are involved in the administration of the lottery draw in which case they must be excluded. This applies to the staff/volunteer/trustee’s family too. 

20. Personal data supplied during the course of this promotion will only be processed in line with Data Protection Act 2018 as set out in the Promoter's Privacy Policy which can be found on our Privacy and Security page.

21. Our Complaints Procedure in relation to the Lottery can be found in our Policy, available to download from RNLI.org/LotteryPolicy and can also be made available on request. You can also send us your comments, positive or negative using our Feedback Form.

22. We are committed to ensuring that the information about how to gamble responsibly is readily available to all – please refer to the RNLI Lottery Responsible Gambling webpage or call the National Gambling Helpline on 0808 8020 133 or visit GambleAware.

23. You can opt out of receiving lottery tickets by calling our Supporter Experience team on 0300 300 9920. This will not affect your prior purchase of lottery entries. 

24. If you feel you have a problem with gambling and would like to request that RNLI excludes you from all of its gambling related activities, including receiving gambling related marketing materials, you can “Self-exclude” by completing the Self Exclusion Form found on the RNLI Lottery Responsible Gambling webpage, notifying us by phone on 0300 300 9920, email [email protected] or in writing to RNLI, West Quay Road, Poole, BH15 1HZ. The exclusion must last for a minimum of six months and if you self-exclude after you bought tickets for the Lottery but before the draw takes place, we will endeavour to provide you with a refund and withdraw your entries. Any prize would be forfeited. 

25. The prize draw and these terms are governed by English law.

26. If you are paying by credit card, you may be charged a fee on top of your Lottery purchase. Please check with your bank for further information.

27. We do not accept credit card payment when playing the Lottery over the phone. 

28. These Terms and Conditions are subject to change.

R.N.L.I. (SALES) LIMITED is licensed and regulated in Great Britain by the Gambling Commission under account number 43072.

Promoter: RNLI (Sales) Ltd. All Profits from the Lifeboat Lottery will be used to fund the work of the RNLI. £1 per entry.

RNLI (Sales) Limited, a registered company number 2202240, whose registered office is at West Quay Road, Poole, Dorset BH15 1HZ.

Lottery Manager: Jayne George of West Quay Road, Poole, Dorset BH15 1HZ.

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), a charity registered in England and Wales (209603), Scotland (SC037736), the Republic of Ireland (CHY 2678 and 20003326) the Bailiwick of Jersey (14), the Isle of Man (1308 and 006329F), the Bailiwick of Guernsey and Alderney.

If you feel you have a problem with gambling, visit www.begambleaware.org or call the National Gambling Helpline on
0808 8020 133.

Not to be sold to or by anyone under 18 years of age. Underage gambling is an offence.

R.N.L.I. (SALES) LIMITED is licensed and regulated in Great Britain by the Gambling Commission under account number 43072.