Are UK Car Competitions Legal?
Yes, UK car competitions are legal. They operate as prize promotions under the Gambling Act 2005 — not as lotteries or gambling — because of the way they're structured. The law is clear, the mechanism has been tested, and most of the established sites have been running for years without legal challenge. Here's how it works.
The Gambling Act 2005: what actually makes something gambling
A lottery under UK law has three elements: payment, chance, and a prize. All three must be present for it to require a Gambling Commission licence. Car competition operators remove one of the three elements — which means they fall outside the definition.
This is not a loophole or grey area. It's the same legal route used by Coca-Cola on a cereal box, Camelot's second-chance draws, and thousands of marketing prize promotions. The mechanism is well-established and has been upheld in case law.
The free entry route
For prize draws (the most common model), operators remove the payment element. They do this by accepting a genuine free entry — typically a handwritten postcard or letter — with equal odds to paid entries.
The free entry route must be genuine: same odds, available throughout the promotion, no steps that unreasonably disadvantage entrants. If an operator buried the free route in tiny print or made it materially harder to use, they'd risk the promotion being reclassified as an unlicensed lottery.
In practice, postal entries represent a tiny fraction of total tickets. Entrants who use them are playing at the same odds as everyone else. See our guide on how free entry actually works for the mechanics.
The skill question route
BOTB's flagship Spot the Ball competition takes a different approach: it removes the element of chance rather than payment. Entrants pay, then use skill to predict where the ball would be in a photograph if it had been removed. Because the result depends on skill rather than chance, it's classed as a prize competition — a different legal category, exempt from the free entry requirement.
The "skill" must be genuine. A trivial question with one obvious answer doesn't count. BOTB's mechanism has been used for over 25 years. Other operators sometimes include a multiple-choice trivia question alongside their draw; whether that qualifies as a skill competition depends on how genuinely difficult the question is.
The DCMS Voluntary Code of Good Practice
In May 2026, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport published a Voluntary Code of Good Practice for Prize Draw Operators. It's exactly what it says: voluntary. Operators who sign it commit to transparent draws, responsible gambling measures, and honest marketing. The code covers:
- Independently verified or witnessed draws
- A published winner list with names
- Responsible gambling information and self-exclusion support
- No misleading pricing or odds claims
- Clear terms and conditions
Not all operators in our dataset have signed the code. Those that have are noted in our site reviews.
Could the law change?
Possibly. In June 2025, DCMS published a consultation report recommending that prize draw operators above a revenue threshold be brought under Gambling Commission regulation. If implemented, operators would need a licence, comply with GC rules on advertising, and implement Gambling Commission-standard safer gambling tools.
As of June 2026, no legislation has been introduced. But the DCMS report is the clearest statement of government intent in this area for years, and operators are aware of the direction of travel.
Last updated: June 2026. About our reviews. 18+ only.