The UK’s Gambling Commission has published new research examining how consumers encounter and participate in illegal individual-led lotteries and raffles on social media, particularly TikTok, as well as Facebook and Instagram.
It found that consumers were generally more concerned about whether a raffle appeared genuine and offered a realistic chance of winning than whether it was legally authorised.
Low ticket prices, informal presentation and familiar payment methods could make the activity appear less risky and reduce the likelihood of concerns being reported.
Not the Commission’s first rodeo
Illegal lotteries have become particularly prevalent on social media, and the Gambling Commission has consistently taken notice of it.
It reported over 438 suspected illegal lotteries in 2025 and there 544 reports of society lotteries presenting themselves as free draws and prize competitions.
Ian Angus, the Gambling Commission’s Director of Policy, has been particularly vocal on the topic in the past few years.
He recently revealed that the Commission issued 741 cease-and-desist notices last year, referred more than 397,000 URLs to search engines for removal, and disrupted over 1,100 illegal gambling websites.
With the UK’s new Illegal Gambling Taskforce now active and the Commission armed with a £26m investment, clamping down on this type of social media prevalence is certainly an area to combat.
The fresh research also found that the consumer journey frequently extends beyond the original social-media post.
Participants may be directed to third-party websites, payment platforms or private messaging channels, where information about terms and conditions, protections and legitimacy can be less clear.
The Commission said some smaller-scale hosts may not fully understand the rules, while others appeared to use particular language and payment practices to obscure what they were doing.
This is obviously not limited to lotteries and raffles. Social media marketing has become a commonly-used mechanism for illegal gambling operators running sportsbooks and casino products.
Illegal lotteries patterns
The research also examined how consumers discover raffles through live streams, another more recent addition to the TikTok platform. Live streams on Meta brands and YouTube have been around for slightly longer.
Younger consumers emerged as an area for further investigation. The survey found that 18-24-year-olds were more likely than older groups to have encountered or participated in these activities on TikTok, although the Commission said it struggled to recruit enough people from this age group for qualitative interviews.
It therefore wants future research to examine how illegal raffles fit into wider gambling and digital entertainment behaviours, including whether they could act as a gateway to other forms of gambling.
Over the past 12 months, work to combat illegal lotteries has led to 252 of them being removed from social media platforms.
Rupam Jagota, Research and Impact Manager at the Gambling Commission, commented: “Alongside this work, we’ll continue to write out to promoters of illegal lotteries to advise that activity is illegal.
“Where we decide to intervene, we will consider working with third parties, including website providers, social media businesses and payment providers to take down illegal activity.
“This research has provided us with insight into an aspect of the illegal gambling market that is relatively new; our aim is to continue strengthening the evidence base using innovative approaches so that we can better understand consumer experiences, identify emerging risks and target regulatory action where it can have the greatest impact in a digital ecosystem that’s rapidly changing.”