Supporters FAQ
Q: What is The Firefighters 100 Lottery?
A: The Firefighters 100 Lottery is a new weekly lottery brought to you by The Fire Brigades Union. When you buy a ticket for £1 you will be entered into a draw to win cash prizes. By playing the Firefighters 100 Lottery you’ll be helping to:
- Support the families of firefighters killed or seriously injured in the line of duty
- Honour the bravery and sacrifice of those firefighters killed in the line of duty
- Promote the lessons to be learnt from firefighter deaths and serious injuries
- Support research into the physical and mental health and well-being of firefighters and the “all hazards” nature of the modern fire and rescue service
- Support humanitarian assistance for those affected by fire or disaster
More information about how your support will help can be found here
Q: How do I play?
A: Simply visit the Firefighters100 Lottery website at www.firefighters100lottery.co.uk and click on 'Buy Tickets' then follow the instructions. You can pay for tickets by Direct Debit or with a debit card.
Q: How much do tickets cost?
A: Each ticket costs £1 / week. You can buy more than one ticket for each draw. At least 50p from every £1 ticket you buy will be spent on supporting the good causes of the lottery (click here for more information). The remainder is spent on prizes, and on the administration of the lottery.
Q: What information will I need to sign up?
A: Signing up is easy. We just need your name, email address, and postal address. We also need your date of birth to validate you are over 18.
Q: What prizes can be won?
A: There will be guaranteed cash winners chosen at random every week with the cash-prizes they win being calculated as a percentage of the total ticket sales bought for that week’s draw:
- 1st Prize = 20% of the value of live tickets (up to a maximum of £25,000)
- 2nd Prize = 2% of the value of live tickets
- 3rd Prize = 7% of the value of live tickets split into £5 winners
e.g if there are 5000 £1 tickets in the draw then the prizes would be £1000, £100 and 70 x £5 respectively.
Any remaining amount when dividing the 3rd prize into £5 winners will be added to the 1st prize.
Q: How does the draw work?
A: The draw process is a raffle, whereby the selection of winning tickets is based upon the selection of a ticket at random from all the eligible tickets for that draw. Each ticket is unique and has an equal chance of winning, including any additional tickets you may buy. The winning ticket will be selected at random using the online resource http://www.random.org/ who are independently verified for their random number generation using atmospheric noise.
Q: What’s the purpose of picking numbers?
A: Many people have favourite or memorable numbers and some feel particular numbers are luckier than others. We allow you to choose a cherished set of numbers, whether that be your telephone number, date of birth or other number important to you. If you don’t want to choose your own numbers you can click the 'choose for me' button.
You can buy additional tickets for inclusion in the same draw and choose different numbers or the same six digit “Game Number” for your additional tickets. Each ticket and additional ticket you buy will be unique when entered into the draw and has an equal chance of winning.
Q: What are the odds of winning a prize?
A: The chances of winning vary according to the number of tickets bought and entered in the lottery each week. The fewer tickets sold in one draw, the greater the chances each ticket has of winning. The more tickets sold in another draw, the bigger the cash prizes that can be won. The more tickets a player has in any draw, the better their chances of winning. The odds of winning the £25,000 jackpot are 1,000,000:1
Q: Can a prize be won by more than one ticket?
A: No. Each £1 ticket offers a unique chance to win a prize. This guarantees only one winner can be drawn for each of the three guaranteed prizes. If any ticket wins one of the three prizes it is not eligible to win any of the others. However, if you have bought more than one ticket in a draw then it is possible for one of your tickets to win one of the prizes and one of your additional tickets to win another prize.
Q: When will the first draw be?
A: The first draw will be on 5th November 2016 and then every week thereafter.
Q: How do winners find out that they've won?
A: Every week, all winners will be advised by e-mail. The winning number will also be published on our website, Facebook and Twitter each week following the draw.
Q: How will I receive my winnings?
A: Your winnings will be paid directly into your nominated bank account or you can choose to donate your winnings back to the good cause fund.
Q: If at least 50p per entry goes to support the good causes, where does the other 50p go?
A: 29p goes to prizes and the remaining 21p is for administration of the lottery and VAT.
There is also a ticket sales formula that means there will never be less than 50p per ticket going to the good causes and yet, when ticket sales are sufficiently high, then more than 50% of those ticket sales can go to the good causes.
Q: How do I pay?
A: You can either set up a monthly recurring payment plan via Direct Debit or payment card, or pay for a block of 1, 3, 6 or 12 months of weekly tickets on a non-recurring basis.
There is no commitment to stay in the lottery and players can choose to leave at anytime.
Unfortunately we can’t accept payments for a single week as payment processing costs would impact the amounts we could provide to prizes and the lottery fund.
Q: What safeguards are there?
A: After a vigorous vetting process, the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) successfully achieved Gambling Commission approval and licence to run the Firefighters 100 Lottery in a fair and open way - including measures to protect children and vulnerable persons from being harmed or exploited by gambling. Furthermore, the sale of lottery tickets, the weekly draws and the paying-out of prizes will all be undertaken independently of the FBU by an External Lottery Management company, also licenced by the Gambling Commission. The FBU have been accepted as a member of the Lotteries Council and through them contribute to the Responsible Gambling Trust (RGT), the leading charity in the UK committed to minimising gambling-related harm.
*For more details about self-exclusion and other safeguarding measures go to https://www.begambleaware.org/
Q: Who deals with any questions I may have?
A: We do. We have a dedicated support number (0300 30 23 999) that deals directly with any queries you may have.
We also have a dedicated email address [email protected]
Q: Can we play as a syndicate?
A: You can play as a syndicate. We provide more information on playing safely as a syndicate here: Syndicates
