How to run a race night in a pub: the three legal ways, the screen licence nobody mentions, and where the pub makes its money

How to run a race night in a pub: run it for a good cause, let chance pick every horse, and keep the pub's money to the bar. The Gambling Commission allows race nights without a licence as non-commercial gaming or as a lottery at an event, as long as the money from the racing, after reasonable costs, goes to the good cause and not to anyone's private gain. No odds, no form, nothing online. And if you're showing recorded races on your TVs, check your premises licence covers films.

A race night is one of the best quiet-night fillers there is. A charity brings a crowd you'd never get on a Thursday in November, the screens do the work, and people stay for eight races instead of one drink. But it's also one of the easiest nights to get wrong, because most people run it the way they remember from the 90s, with a tote and a cut for the house. Here's how to do it properly.

The one rule that decides everything

The pub can't make money from the racing. Poppleston Allen, the licensing solicitors, put it plainly: the pub can profit from the alcohol sales, but not from the gaming itself. The Gambling Commission's guidance says the proceeds, including entry fees, sponsorship and the difference between stakes and payouts, must not be used for private gain and must all go to the good cause after reasonable costs like prizes and betting slips.

So stop thinking of it as a gambling night. It's a charity night that you host, and you make your money where you always do. That's also why it works. People spend more freely at a bar when they know the racing money's going to the hospice.

The three legal ways to run it

Gambling Commission routes for a fundraising race night, from its guidance to licensing authorities, part 28

Route	How it works	The limits
Non-commercial prize gaming	Players are told the good cause before they play. Prizes are fixed and advertised in advance	Prizes can't depend on how many people play or how much is staked
Non-commercial equal chance gaming	Everyone has the same chance, no bank, horses allocated at random	Maximum £8 per player per day, all in. Total prizes below £600, or up to £900 for the final of a series
Incidental lottery	A horse picked at random for each paying customer, part of a wider event	Up to £500 of the proceeds on prizes and £100 on expenses. Tickets sold only at the event, during it. No rollovers

Poppleston Allen say the simplest is non-commercial prize gaming. I agree for a pub: fix the prizes, put them on the posters, tell everyone which charity it's for, and you've done most of the legal work.

Whichever route, the Commission says the horse has to be chosen entirely by chance. Draw them from a hat, use numbered tickets, or let the kit allocate them. If you're showing anyone the form or offering odds, you've moved into betting.

What you can't do

• Odds, form or a bookie-style book. Betting needs a licensed bookmaker. At a fundraiser the Commission only allows that under an occasional use notice at a sports venue or track, for no more than eight days a year. That's not a pub.
• Anything online. None of the exemptions can be run remotely. No selling horses on Facebook, no online race night streamed to people at home.
• A cut for the pub. Not from the stakes, not from an entry fee, not from an "admin charge". Proceeds go to the good cause.
• Calling it private to get round the rules. Private gaming can only happen where the public has no access, can't charge anything, and can't make a profit even for charity. A pub function room open to the public isn't private.

Get it wrong and the Gambling Act is only half of it. Poppleston Allen's point is that it's your premises licence at risk, because a review can follow if the police or council think the crime and disorder objective has been undermined.

The screen licence nobody mentions

Here's the bit I've never seen in a race night guide. Under the Licensing Act 2003, an exhibition of a film means any exhibition of moving pictures, and showing one to the public is regulated entertainment. Live TV is exempt because it's shown as it's broadcast. A downloaded race night video isn't live TV. It's a recording, played to a room. So my reading is that your premises licence needs to allow films for the hours of the race night, or you cover the night with a Temporary Event Notice.

Check your licence. A lot of pubs have films on it from years back. If yours doesn't, a TEN is the easy fix for a one-off, and my guide to showing films in a pub covers the licence side and the age-rating condition. If you're not sure, ring your council licensing team. They'd much rather you asked.

And buy the races. Race night kits come with the right to show them. RaceNight.me.uk, for example, lists a download with 8 races, a spare final and a virtual compere at £49.99, or £29.99 without the host. Never use someone else's video off the internet. It isn't yours to show to a paying room.

A worked charity night

Here's how I'd set one up as non-commercial prize gaming. Every number is mine and illustrative, so swap in yours.

One charity race night: where the money goes. Author's illustrative figures

Line	Sum	Who gets it
Horses: 8 races, 8 horses, £2 each	£128	Proceeds
Race sponsors: 8 local businesses at £20	£160	Proceeds
Fixed prizes, advertised in advance: £10 a race for 7 races, £30 for the final	−£100	Winners
Race kit (the pub pays it, so it doesn't come off the charity's money)	£0
To the charity	£188	The good cause

And the pub's side. Say the charity brings 60 people on a night that usually does 20, and each has three drinks. That's 180 drinks the pub wouldn't have sold. At about £2.45 of gross profit a drink, the figure a typical £5.34 pint makes, that's around £441. Take off £49.99 for the kit and an extra bar person for five hours at the £12.71 minimum wage, £63.55, and you're about £327 better off than a dead Thursday. Plus 60 people who now know where your pub is.

That's the real point. The racing raises money for the cause. The night raises money for the pub. Keep them apart in your head and on paper.

Running the night

1. Pick the cause first and get them to bring the crowd. A school PTA, a football club's juniors, a local hospice. They've got the mailing list and the reason to turn up. You've got the room and the screens.
2. Fix and advertise the prizes on the posters and the night. Tell people which cause benefits before anyone pays.
3. Sell race sponsorships to local businesses in the weeks before. £20 to have the taxi firm or the barber's name on a race is cheap advertising for them, and it's often the biggest single line for the charity.
4. Sell horses on the night only, and allocate them by chance. Owners can name their horse. That's half the fun.
5. Get a compere, or use the kit's virtual one. A good one makes the night.
6. Pay out straight after each race and keep a sheet: race, horse, winner, prize. Hand the charity a written total at the end.
7. Count the bar before and after. A busy one-off night blurs into the week otherwise. My function bar guide covers the quick before-and-after count.

Under-18s can take part in race nights run as non-commercial gaming, the Commission says, but it's still your pub, with your licence conditions on children. Check those first. My guide on children in pubs has the rules.

Getting people through the door

Start promoting it three weeks out, and make the charity do half of it. Put a poster on the bar and the toilets, and put it on your TVs on the busy nights before. If you've got StockTap TV, it's an offer on every screen timed to your Friday and Saturday crowd, and the QR scan count tells you if anyone's actually looking at it. The guide on quiet nights has the sum on what a dead night really costs you, which is the number a race night is beating.

For the other games nights, poker, bingo, raffles and quizzes, the limits are in pub poker, bingo, quiz and raffle rules, and the bingo night itself, with all 90 calls, is in how to run a pub bingo night.

Common questions

Can a pub run a race night?

Yes, as a fundraiser. The Gambling Commission allows race nights without a licence as non-commercial gaming or an incidental lottery, provided horses are allocated by chance and the proceeds, after reasonable costs such as prizes, go to a good cause. The pub can profit from bar sales but not from the gaming.

Do you need a licence to run a race night?

Not a gambling licence if it is run as non-commercial gaming or an incidental lottery within the limits. Betting with odds needs a licensed bookmaker. If recorded races are shown on screens, check your premises licence covers films or use a Temporary Event Notice.

How much can people pay at a race night?

Under non-commercial equal chance gaming, the maximum a player can be charged is £8 per day, including entry, stakes and other payments, and total prizes must stay below £600. Under non-commercial prize gaming the prizes must be fixed and advertised in advance.

Can the pub keep the money from a race night?

No. Proceeds from the racing, including entry fees, sponsorship and the difference between stakes and payouts, must not be used for private gain and must go to the good cause after reasonable costs. The pub makes its money from the bar.

Can you sell race night horses online?

No. The Gambling Commission says none of the race night exemptions can be run remotely, so horses must be sold and allocated at the event.