How to Run a Random Raffle

A raffle is not a giveaway

They get treated as the same thing and they are not.

A giveaway draws from a list of people. One entrant, one name, and usually one prize maximum per person.

A raffle draws from a book of tickets. One person may hold twelve tickets and each is a separate chance. You draw a *number*, and only then find out who is holding it.

That changes the tooling. You need ticket numbers rather than names, the number has to be readable from the back of a room, and a drawn ticket has to stay drawn for the rest of the evening. The raffle wheel is built for that; the giveaway winner picker is built for the other one.

Preparing the tickets

Know exactly which numbers were sold. If your book runs 101–340 but only 101–287 sold, put 101–287 on the wheel. Including unsold tickets means the wheel can draw a number nobody holds, and you will have to redraw in front of everyone — which always looks like something went wrong.

Build the range quickly on the random number generator by entering a minimum and a maximum, then copy the numbers across. The raffle wheel also has presets for common books.

Keep it under about 200 tickets on the wheel. Beyond that the slices are unreadable and the draw stops being watchable. For a bigger book, draw in two stages — a block first, then the ticket within the block. Two visible spins, fair for the first prize when every block holds the same number of tickets. For later prizes, or a short last block, weight each block by the tickets it still holds, as the raffle wheel page explains.

Have the ticket-to-name list to hand so you can announce the holder immediately.

Decisions to make before the first spin

Announce all of these before you draw anything. Each one is a fight if you decide it after a result:

• Prize order. Smallest to largest keeps the room until the end; largest first gets the excitement over with. Either is fine, stated in advance.
• Absent winners. Redraw immediately, or hold the prize for collection? Both are normal; deciding after an absent winner comes up looks like favouritism.
• Can one ticket win twice? Almost always no. Leave Retire each ticket once it wins on.
• Can one person win twice on different tickets? Usually yes, since each ticket is a separate entry — but say so.
• What happens to unclaimed prizes.

Running the room

• Fullscreen on the projector — just the wheel, nothing else on screen.
• Sound on. The ticking does real work in a room; it tells people something is happening without you narrating.
• Dramatic spin length (eight seconds). Longer and a hundred people start talking over it.
• Read the number twice, then pause. People need a moment to check their tickets.
• Spacebar spins, so you can drive it from a clicker without leaning over a laptop.
• Keep the results panel open — it lists every ticket drawn, in order, and Copy exports it with timestamps for whoever is keeping the books.

If a ticket is drawn and the holder is not there, apply the rule you announced. Do not improvise, and do not let the room vote on it.

Licensed and charity raffles

Selling raffle tickets is regulated almost everywhere. Rules vary a great deal between US states, Canadian provinces, Australian states and between countries, and can cover who may run a raffle, how tickets are sold, how large the prizes may be, how the draw is conducted and what records you must keep.

Wheel Cue is unbiased and shows its working, but it is not an audited draw service and it produces no independent record. If your raffle needs a licence, follow the process that licence specifies, and use the wheel only if it is compatible with it.

If nobody pays to enter — a free office draw, a club night, a classroom prize — the wheel is a good fit. If people pay for tickets, the raffle is a lottery in law almost everywhere: in most US states, and in Canada, the UK, Australia and Italy, with narrow exceptions, only registered charities, non-profits or licensed groups may run one, often with a permit and limits on prizes and proceeds, and some places do not allow raffles at all. That includes school and charity fundraisers. Check with your state, provincial or local gaming regulator before you sell a single ticket. Wheel Cue cannot tell you whether your raffle is lawful.