# No Purchase Necessary: What It Means in UK Competitions | Grand Draws > What no purchase necessary legally means in UK prize draws and competitions, why a free draw is not gambling, and why a free entry must carry the same odds as a paid one. Source: https://granddraws.co.uk/no-purchase-necessary --- # What "no purchase necessary" actually means **It means you can enter and win without spending any money, and that the free route has the same chance of winning as a paid one.** It is a requirement with real consequences, not a marketing phrase. A promotion that advertises it but makes the free route harder, slower or longer-odds than paying is not offering free entry at all. ## The phrase covers two different arrangements This is where most confusion comes from, and where a lot of sites are vague. The two are not the same thing and they are lawful for different reasons. We run both, so here is each one plainly. ### A free draw, with no paid option at all Nothing is for sale. There is no ticket, no entry fee and no way to pay even if you wanted to. Because a lottery depends on people paying to enter, an arrangement with no payment in it is not a lottery, and sits outside gambling licensing entirely. No licence, and no skill question needed either, because there is no paid entry that would require one. Our free £500 launch draw works this way. [Enter the free draw](https://granddraws.co.uk/launch-draw). ### A paid competition with a free route beside it Tickets are sold, so the arrangement has to stay lawful another way. Ours does it twice over: winning requires a correct answer to a genuine skill question, and there is a free postal entry route carrying the same number of entries and exactly the same odds as a paid ticket. Remove either of those and it would become licensable gambling. Paid entry is limited to Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland), because the Act this route sits in does not extend to Northern Ireland. Our cash competitions work this way. [See the free postal route](https://granddraws.co.uk/free-entry). ## Why equal odds is the part that matters A free route is easy to put in the terms and hard to mean. The common failures are a postal address buried where nobody will find it, a free route that closes earlier than the paid one, a limit of one free entry against unlimited paid ones, or a free entry quietly pooled into a smaller draw. Each of those turns "no purchase necessary" into a technicality. The test worth applying is simple: if the free route is genuinely as good, a promoter has no reason to hide it. So look at how prominent it is. On our competitions the postal route is linked from the entry panel itself, on the same screen as the ticket picker, and it opens and closes at the same time as paid entry. It is also why none of our rewards or perks will ever improve anyone's odds. Free spins, site credit, streaks and levels are all free to earn and none of them touch the chance of winning a competition, because the published ticket cap is the whole story on odds and has to stay that way for everybody. ## What to check on any promotion - Can you find the free route without hunting for it, and does it close at the same time as paid entry? - Does a free entry get the same number of entries into the same draw, or a lesser version? - Is the promoter named, with terms you can read before you enter? - Is the prize committed and the date fixed, or do both depend on how much they sell? - Is there any fee, charge or deduction at the point of claiming? There should never be one. Applied to us: the prize on the free draw is committed before it runs, our paid competitions publish their ticket cap so you can do the odds yourself, every draw goes ahead on its published closing date with the full prize whether or not it sold out, and we never ask a winner for a payment. [Our standards](https://granddraws.co.uk/standards) sets out the rest, and [the terms](https://granddraws.co.uk/terms) are readable before you enter anything. ## Common questions ### What does "no purchase necessary" actually mean? That you can enter and win without spending any money, and that the free route carries the same chance of winning as any paid one. It is not a courtesy or a marketing phrase. If a promotion says it, the free route has to be real, reasonably easy to use, and no worse than paying. ### Is a free prize draw gambling? No. A lottery requires people to pay to enter. Where there is genuinely nothing to pay, the arrangement is a free draw rather than a lottery, so it falls outside gambling licensing altogether. That is why our £500 free draw needs no licence and no skill question. ### So why do your paid competitions have a skill question? Because once money changes hands the arrangement has to stay on the right side of the same line. A paid prize competition is lawful without a gambling licence where winning genuinely depends on skill, judgement or knowledge. We require a correct answer from every entrant, and we also offer a free postal route on identical odds. Two independent reasons it is not a lottery rather than one. ### Does a free entry really have the same chance as a paid ticket? Yes, and it has to. A postal entry receives the same number of entries and exactly the same chance of winning as a paid ticket. A free route that quietly carried worse odds would not be a free route at all, and the competition would stop being lawful. ### Do I pay tax on a prize? No. Prize winnings from a UK draw or competition are not treated as income, so a cash prize arrives in full. Nobody legitimate will ever ask you to pay tax or a fee before releasing a prize. ### Is this legal advice? No. This page explains how our own promotions are structured and what the phrase means in plain terms. It is a description of what we do, not advice about what anyone else should do. ## Related - [The £500 free prize draw, nothing to buy](https://granddraws.co.uk/free-prize-draw) - [How to enter free prize draws, step by step](https://granddraws.co.uk/how-to-enter-free-draws) - [Are prize competitions gambling?](https://granddraws.co.uk/guides/are-prize-competitions-gambling) - [What is a skill question?](https://granddraws.co.uk/guides/what-is-a-skill-question) - [Can you trust a brand new competition site?](https://granddraws.co.uk/welcome-draw) ## See it in practice Our free £500 draw has nothing to buy at any stage (18+, UK residents), and our paid competitions all carry a free postal route on the same odds (18+, Great Britain). ## Your ticket could be next Every competition has published odds, a draw anyone can verify and a free postal route. 18+.