How Our Raffle Draw Works
We want every participant to feel confident that our draw is completely fair. Here is a plain-English explanation of exactly what happens.
Every ticket is a separate, equal entry
When you buy tickets, each ticket gets its own unique random number — for example #3847, #1203, #7741. These are individual entries, not linked to each other.
If you buy five tickets, your five numbers each go into the draw independently. Buying more tickets genuinely increases your chances — five tickets gives you five times the chance of a single ticket, because five separate slots are in the pool.
The draw pool is built from individual ticket slots
Before the draw, our system builds a complete list of every ticket number from every paid entry. Each ticket number occupies exactly one slot in the pool — no more, no less.
Only paid entries are included. Reservations awaiting payment are excluded until payment is confirmed.
If a buyer earned bonus entries through our referral scheme, those appear as additional ticket slots with an equal chance to any other slot.
The winner is chosen using a cryptographically secure random number
Our software uses PHP's built-in random_int() function to select the winning slot. This is the same class of random number generator used by banks and security systems — it draws from your operating system's hardware entropy source (unpredictable physical events like CPU timing variations), making it impossible to predict or manipulate.
This is meaningfully more random than rolling a die or drawing from a hat, because it has no physical bias and no human involvement in the selection.
Multiple prizes are drawn fairly in sequence
When there is more than one prize, each prize is drawn separately in order — 1st prize first, then 2nd prize, and so on.
After each draw, the specific winning ticket number is removed from the pool. However, if that buyer had other tickets, those tickets remain in the pool and are fully eligible for the remaining prizes. Nobody can win the same prize twice, but a buyer's other tickets can still win subsequent prizes.
The draw is conducted by authorised committee members
The draw button is only accessible to logged-in committee members of Bewdley Carnival Committee. A confirmation prompt is shown before the draw is made and the action cannot be undone. The result is recorded immediately with a timestamp.
The draw can be witnessed — committee members can share their screen or display the draw page on a projector at a public event.
Every draw is permanently recorded
The following information is stored for every prize drawn and retained indefinitely:
- The winning ticket number
- The name of the winner
- The exact date and time of the draw
- The total number of ticket slots that were in the pool
- How many tickets the winner held (and their individual odds)
- Which prize was drawn
This record is available to the committee at any time. If you have a question about a specific draw, please contact us and we can provide the full details.
We are a registered Small Society Lottery
Bewdley Carnival Committee operates this raffle as a Small Society Lottery under the Gambling Act 2005, registered with Wyre Forest District Council (Registration No. 26/02285/LOTLIC).
This means we are legally required to:
- Sell tickets only to people aged 16 or over
- Ensure all ticket proceeds go toward our charitable / community purposes
- Keep prizes and expenses within 80% of total proceeds
- Submit a full return to the licensing authority within three months of each draw
- Make that return available for public inspection
Any participant who wishes to raise a concern about the conduct of a draw may contact Bewdley Carnival Committee directly, or submit a complaint to Wyre Forest District Council as the licensing authority.