The Prize Draw Code of Practice: Three Months On, What Has Actually Changed?

The Government published its Voluntary Code of Good Practice for Prize Draw Operators in November 2025 and gave the industry six months to implement it. That deadline passed on 20 May 2026. Three months on, it is worth asking what it actually gives you as an entrant — and what it still does not.

What Operators Have Signed Up To

The Code is built around player protection, transparency and accountability. Signatories commit to:

• Clear information about the rules, the draw mechanism and, where possible, the likelihood of winning;
• Free entry routes displayed clearly and prominently before the point of purchase;
• Restricting entry to over-18s using reasonable age verification;
• Proportionate monthly spending limits, a £250 monthly cap on credit card entries, and a complete ban on credit cards for instant-win competitions;
• Prompt delivery of the advertised prize or a reasonable cash alternative, without reduction or cancellation because of low ticket sales;
• A proper complaints and dispute process, and signposting to support services.

The One That Matters Most

That fifth bullet is the important one, and it gets almost no attention.

The single biggest risk when you enter a competition on a smaller site is not that the draw is rigged. It is that the comp does not sell enough tickets, and the operator falls back on a clause letting them extend the draw, shrink the prize or hand over a cash alternative worth a fraction of the advertised item. It is legal, it is usually buried in the terms, and it is exactly what the Advertising Standards Authority has previously ruled against in the property raffle world.

It also quietly undermines every value calculation, including ours. A Value Ratio assumes the advertised prize is actually awarded. A draw showing brilliant value on a tiny pool is only brilliant if that pool sells and the prize goes out of the door. A signature on this Code is a public commitment to the second half of that.

How Much of the Market Has Signed?

Less than you would hope, but more than you might expect at the top end. The list published at launch ran to 23 operators, including BOTB, Omaze, Raffle House, RevComps, Elite Competitions, Dream Car Giveaways, Click Competitions, Storm Competitions, Pristine Competitions, Spin Competitions, The Giveaway Guys, Raffolux, Daymade and 7 Days Performance. It has been reported to have grown well past 100 since.

Against that, we currently track around 80 operators running live draws. So most sites in the market are not on the original list. But the signatories are concentrated where the volume is: of the ten busiest operators on our platform by live draw count, six were on the list at launch. If you enter comps at all regularly, you are probably already dealing mostly with signatories.

What the Code Does Not Do

It is voluntary. It is not law, it does not replace consumer, advertising or data protection rules, and there is no regulator auditing compliance or compensating you if an operator ignores it. There is no requirement to publish odds — only to give the likelihood of winning “where possible”, which open-ended draws will always argue around. And there is no enforcement beyond reputation.

What it does have is a stick behind it. The Government has been explicit that if operators sign the Code and then fail to implement it, statutory regulation follows. The next year or so is effectively the industry auditioning to stay unregulated.

What to Do With This

Treat a signature as a starting filter, not a guarantee. Check whether the operator lists the Code, then do what you should do anyway: read what happens if the comp does not sell out, check the pool size rather than just the ticket price, and work out your real odds before you pay. Browse who we track on the operator directory, and run any comp through the odds calculator first.