Is an online raffle legal in the Philippines? Facebook 'pa-raffle', DTI promo permits and what PAGCOR says

"Pa-raffle" posts are everywhere on Philippine Facebook: a motorcycle, a phone or cash, with tickets sold through GCash and drawn on a livestream. Whether that is legal depends on one thing: are people paying for the chance to win? You must be 21+ to gamble.

Two kinds of raffle

	Paid-ticket raffle	Sales promotion raffle
How you enter	You pay for a ticket, and the ticket is the chance	Entry comes with a purchase or for free; you are buying the product, not the chance
What it is in law	A form of lottery; PD 1602 lists "numbers, bingo and other forms of lotteries"	A "sales promotion" under the Consumer Act
Who authorises it (our reading)	PAGCOR, for online gaming	DTI, by sales promotion permit, for campaigns the rules cover
Online, without that authority	Illegal online gaming, in PAGCOR's words (below)	A permit violation, if the campaign needed a permit

The Lucky Dream 4 case, May 2024

On 1 May 2024, the PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group and PAGCOR's security team arrested 16 people in Biñan, Laguna, while they were livestreaming the 50th draw of the Facebook page "Lucky Dream 4" (AGBrief, 3 May 2024). According to the Philippine Star, tickets cost P40, up to 50,000 were sold per draw, the prizes were second-hand motorcycles and the page had 111,000 followers (Philstar, 7 May 2024).

PAGCOR's Senior Vice President for security, Raul Villanueva, said: "The Lucky Dream 4 group is obviously engaged in an illegal online gaming activity," and "They need to secure a license from PAGCOR if they want to operate an online gaming platform." He said the group had earned over P8 million (Philstar).

Our arithmetic: a sold-out draw of 50,000 tickets at P40 would bring in P2 million; the reported take of over P8 million across 50 draws means most draws sold far fewer. Either way, the prize was a second-hand motorcycle, and no regulator was checking the draw.

Sales promotions: the DTI permit

Businesses run raffles legally as promos all the time. The Consumer Act of the Philippines (RA 7394, 1992) defines a sales promotion as "techniques intended for broad consumer participation which contain promises of gain such as prizes". Article 116 requires a permit for "sales campaigns, including beauty contest, national in character, sponsored and promoted by manufacturing enterprises", applied for "at least thirty (30) calendar days prior to the commencement thereof" (RA 7394, Lawphil). Violating Articles 116 to 121 carries a fine of P200 to P600, imprisonment of one to six months, or both (Art. 123(b)).

DTI Administrative Order 10-02 (12 February 2010) applies the permit rule to promotional campaigns for consumer products, services and credit that are "nationwide in character": apply 30 days before the activity, and no covered promotion may start before the permit is issued. Some promotions are exempt, for example in-store price cuts and samples that are not advertised outside the store, and promotions run by civic, religious or similar groups among their own members (DTI AO 10-02, Supreme Court e-Library).

In our reading, a DTI permit is for promos; it does not make it legal to sell chances for money.

Before you buy a raffle ticket online

• Is the ticket the purchase? If you are paying only for the chance to win, it is gambling, and online gambling is legal only with a PAGCOR-authorised operator (licence checker).
• Is there a permit? For a sales promotion, ask the organiser for its DTI permit and check that you are buying a product, not a chance.
• Who holds the money? Tickets paid by GCash to a personal account leave you with no one to complain to if the draw never happens. Never lend your own account to collect raffle money (scam signs).
• Beware fake "apps". In our Google check of "is online raffle illegal in the philippines" (8 November 2026), two of the top eight results were fake "Apps on Google Play" pages hosted on Brazilian government subdomains (fake app pages in Google).

To report an illegal online raffle, call CICC Hotline 1326. For the penalties under PD 1602, see illegal gambling penalties. If gambling is causing problems, free help is at 02-8248-9568.