Concerns have been raised about lotteries or raffles being promoted on social media such as Facebook, unfortunately some of these raffles and lotteries are unregulated and illegal.
Always be very vigilant and be careful to check you are not running or participating in an illegal lottery.
As per the Gambling act 2005 It is illegal to offer a lottery without the correct license or legal permission, even where it is intended to raise funds for a good cause.
The Gambling commission have seen a huge rise in people reporting such raffles and lotteries and the majority of these are not licenced by them. If someone intends to run a lottery or raffle on Facebook or anywhere else that will have ticket sales of more than £20,000 each month, or £250,000 in a calendar year they need to apply for a licence from the gambling commission.
It is a criminal offence to run an illegal lottery and people who do so could face prosecution.
Always check that the organisation running the lottery is licensed by the Gambling Commission or registered with a local authority. You can check on the Gambling commission website by looking at their public register on their website.
If they say that the lottery or raffle is raising money for a charity you can check with the charity whether this is the case.
Facebook pages that are verified also have a blue tick on them, there are many unverified Facebook pages so always check for this.
if you are being asked to send payment via PayPal to an individual, or to an individual’s bank details, this is likely to be a fraudulent lottery.
Please visit the gambling commission page for more information www.gamblingcommission.org.uk and if you feel that you have been a victim of such a scam.
We have heard of cases where people are being harassed and intimidated by people running these lotteries and raffles and this is illegal. It is recommended that you deactivate your Facebook account and contact the gambling commission to report these matters.
We have also heard of cases where loan sharks are contacting people and involved in such scams online. More information about how to act if you feel that you are a victim of a loan shark can be found here. www.stoploansharks.co.uk
KirkÂ
Forum Admin
here here thanks for posting gamcare!!!! lets not pay aything even if we owe money to these loan sharks lets just close our facebook down..... i closed my facebook down as i was getting gambling adverts and no matter how i set my preferences even if each time i said i was offended by the adverts they would still come up later (facebook doesnt care its just about making money)...... I dont miss facebook at all.....Lets all stand against acebook with our footsteps by closing ours down, deleting all our data they have on us and not going back!!!!
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Thank you gamcare for giving gamcare users more confidence on this issue i was worried for people on here.
another news article with someone saying they get abuse on social media!!!! Just close it and don't use it!!!! Simple no problem. It's just madness people still use it all
Just been trying to find this post as I remember it being put up. But I thought the response on it would be a lot more. I've sent gamcare an email with couple of examples, because I feel although gamcare has addressed it here that the escalation of social media gambling is still fairly hidden or I feel it would be seen as peraphs not seen as serious as going to the bookies or casino.Â
By this if someone said to me if I wasn't aware of the pages. They spend a lot of money or raffle/ game lottery pages etc that it wouldn't be as possible to get in almost the same amount of debt. The odd game here and there really starts adding up and it also comes with other numerous issues.
It's also hard because you can self exclude from other forms of gambling and block. Yes you can block social media but if the urge is there it's not the same as having an urge with gamstop and gamban in place. Banking blocks don't cover because its not registered as gambling it's via individuals bank accounts.Â
I just feel that in general that social media gambling is a massive hidden problem. I joined a group chat on one..most the people has had previous issues with gambling and have gamstop etc which is actually concerning. Its an unsafe way to gamble. No way is safe but I feel there needs to be more of an awareness not to trigger anyone to but so that more help advice can be given for this particular type because its the same games but through a more harmful way because how do you know these people can be trusted. You do get harrased constantly tagged messaged. I've even had phone calls through the social media.
Many no how to catch you out ..chase free numbers but then end up spending more than what you would have.Â
I just think even though gamcares highlighted it here. It's a massive problem and people don't understand how much these pages are escalating for problem gamblers.
Lou x
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