Choosing the states
How the states you sell in determine which rules your raffle must follow.
When you set up a raffle, you choose the states and territories you'll sell tickets in. This isn't just a delivery setting — it's the single biggest driver of which rules your raffle has to follow. Pick carefully.
Each state you add brings its rules
Every state and territory you operate in applies its own raffle rules to your raffle. So a raffle selling in three states must satisfy all three states' requirements at once — the permit thresholds, the prize caps, the disclosure rules, the lot.
RaffleLink checks your raffle against every state you've chosen, and flags whatever any of them requires. Add more states, and you may pick up more requirements — more potential permits, tighter prize caps, extra disclosures.
Why a buyer's state matters
When someone buys a ticket, they tell you their state. If their state isn't one you've set your raffle up for, they can't buy — they'll see a message that the raffle isn't available to them. That's the rules working as intended: you can only sell where you're permitted to.
So there's a balance:
- More states = a bigger potential audience, but more rules to satisfy (and possibly more permits).
- Fewer states = simpler compliance, but a smaller audience.
A practical approach
- Start with where your supporters actually are. If your community is mostly in one state, you may not need the complexity of selling nationwide.
- Add states deliberately. Each one is worth it only if you'll genuinely sell there — don't switch on a state just in case, since it may add requirements you then have to meet.
- Let RaffleLink show you the cost. As you add states in the Compliance step, you'll see what each one requires. If a state triggers a permit you don't want to pursue, you can simply not sell there.
Online-only in Tasmania
There's a helpful wrinkle for online raffles: if your raffle is online-only (no in-person paper tickets) and open in Tasmania, it's exempt from Tasmania's raffle regulations. Sell paper tickets in person there as well, though, and the paper side has to follow the local rules. See Tasmania.
The Northern Territory needs its own permission
The NT used to have a similar online-only exemption; it doesn't any more. Unless your organisation is based in the Territory, selling to NT buyers requires an NT foreign lottery permission, at any raffle size, before the first ticket is sold. Most organisers simply leave NT unselected: it's around 1% of Australia's population, and a raffle without NT selected has nothing extra to do. See Northern Territory for both sides of the rule.
Victoria needs a verified declaration
Victoria is a special case: to sell tickets there, the raffle needs a current VGCCC declaration behind it, verified on RaffleLink — normally your own organisation's. An ABN check or a manual review earns your Verified badge but won't unlock Victoria on its own. Until a declaration is verified, you won't be able to take the raffle live in VIC. See Verify your organisation for how to do it.
The exception: a raffle with an approved benefitting organisation can run in Victoria on their declaration instead.
Changing states later
You can adjust eligible states while building a draft. Once a raffle is live, changing where it operates is more constrained — some states limit what you can change after sales begin. See What you can change after activation. The takeaway: decide your states thoughtfully before you publish.