Frequently Asked Questions

The RAF Sports Lottery is a weekly lottery draw where players who have bought a ticket are given the chance to win cash prizes with a top prize of £10,000. The profits raised by the RAF Sports Lottery are used to support the charitable work of the RAF Central Fund with our primary objective, to encourage, support and facilitate the participation in sport and physical activities across the RAF. We seek to principally achieve this through our grant funding programmes and in doing so we help to safeguard the health and wellbeing of serving personnel. In 2019 our lottery proceeds were £2,881,682, of that 51% was spent on delivering our charity’s mission, 45% was given out in prizes and 4% covered expenses.

Every week, there are 20 cash prizes on offer as follows: Top Prize £10,000, 2nd Prize £3,000, 3rd Prize £2,000, 4th Prize £1,000, 5th Prize £500 and 15 prizes of £100.

Prior to 1 September 2020 there were 10 cash prizes on offer each week: Top Prize £10,000, 2nd Prize £5,000, 3rd Prize £3,000 and 7 prizes of £1,000.

The draw takes place each Friday. Once the draw has taken place, winners are notified by email and where possible, by phone. The winners’ names and winning lottery numbers are published on our website and on social media. We will only ever notify the winner themselves and will not leave messages with anyone else, including your work colleagues or family regarding a lottery win.

If you are a winner, we will make payment of your winnings by direct credit to the bank account details used for your Direct Debit payments. This allows us to ensure your winnings are quickly and securely received.

Anyone who is currently serving in the RAF (including all Reserve forces) or who has, at any time, served in the RAF can play the RAF Sports Lottery. Unfortunately we are currently unable to accept individuals from University Air Squadron (unless a Volunteer Reserve), Air Cadets (Air Training Corp or Combined Cadet Force) or Civil Servants for play, unless they have formerly served within the RAF.

Each ticket costs £1 per week.

You can purchase from 1 to a maximum of 6 tickets for each weekly draw.

You can buy your lottery tickets through our website. You can pay by Direct Debit on a monthly, quarterly, half annually or annual basis.

Following successful registration for play you will continue to be entered into the draw as long as you have monies available against your number(s). Remember that the RAF Sports Lottery is open to all serving and retired members of the RAF, so continue to play to make sure you’re in with a chance to win one of our great cash prizes.

Within 21 days of registration you will receive a confirmation email which contains details of your unique lottery number(s) and the date of the first draw your tickets are entered into. You will be entered into the draw when you have monies available and you will continue to be entered into the draw as long as you have monies available against your lottery number.

Following registration it is necessary to complete a number of administrative processes which include verifying your payment details with your bank, claiming the funds from your bank account and the funds being received.

When you first join the game, to ensure you have enough money in your player account to enter each draw we need to take a slightly higher than normal first payment.  This higher payment is needed to provide sufficient credit in your account to cover the first 5 week months of play that occur immediately following your joining the game.

For example, if you joined the game in September 2022 with 1 ticket a week in play, the normal direct debit amount of £4.34 would not provide sufficient credit for your ticket to be included in the 5 weekly draws in September 2022.

Each subsequent Direct Debit is lower but will also ensure that you will always have sufficient credit to cover calendar months in which there are 5 draws (see FAQ below for further information).

£4.34 might appear to be a strange amount to pay. However, that is what £52 (52 weeks of play x £1 lottery ticket) equals when it is divided by 12 (months). In other words, your normal monthly payment is based on paying £1 per entry per week over a 52 week year. In some calendar months there will be four draws and in other calendar months there will be five draws depending on how each week falls within the relevant month. By paying £4.34 per month you will ensure that there is sufficient credit in your account to enter every draw whether there are four or five draws in that calendar month. If you cancel your Direct Debit, any credit in your account will be entered into future draws in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Lottery.

In order to ensure the accessibility, usability and security of our payments process we use a payments management system provided by our external Lottery Manager.

These are chosen randomly and will be your numbers for the duration of your membership of our lottery. When you enter the lottery you will be sent your unique lottery number(s) by email.

You can amend your details by contacting Sterling Lotteries, our Lottery provider, on 0370 050 5893 or via email.

The law states that lottery tickets must not be sold to, or by, those under the age of 16. In accordance with our license we must abide by this law. The Gambling Commission has published codes of practice which help to ensure gambling is operated in a responsible manner. For further information on the Gambling Commission and the Gambling Act, please visit www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk

If you wish to cancel your RAF Sports Lottery membership please call Sterling Lotteries our Lottery provider on 0370 050 5893 or via email.

We operate a self-exclusion scheme. Self-exclusion means asking us, as a gambling provider, to exclude you from gambling with us for a specified period (a minimum of six months). Please note you must take positive action and contact us in order to self-exclude. If you require any further information about our self-exclusion policy please click here. If you would like to speak to someone about self-exclusion please contact us at 0370 050 5893 or via email to rafsports@sterlinglotteries.co.uk. Please also note that software is available to prevent an individual computer from accessing gambling internet sites – for further information see GambleAware – Self Exclusion.

The lottery terms and conditions are a list of rules we adhere to in order to ensure clarity and understanding around the terms of your entry into our lottery. You can find the terms and conditions here.

Yes, every £1 entry has an equal chance of winning, and the winning numbers are drawn by a Random Number Generator which is managed by our External Lottery provider Sterling Lotteries. In 2021 on average each ticket had a 1 in 55,384 chance of winning a prize.

Responsible gambling means staying in control of how much time and money we spend on gambling. Responsible gambling means not spending more money or time than we can reasonably afford on gambling activities, keeping in mind all our other responsibilities in life.  For more information on responsible gambling, please visit www.begambleaware.org.

If you have questions or concerns about your own gambling, or about that of a friend or family member, we recommend you get in touch with the National Gambling Helpline on Freephone 0808 8020 133.

For our complaints procedure please visit the Rules section.

No problem, we have a record of your number. If you would like us to re-send your lottery numbers to you, please contact us.