New — the DCMS Voluntary Code for prize-draw operators is now in effect. Here's what independent draw verification means for UK competitions.Read the guide →
Verified Draws
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Field notes on fair draws

Plain-English guides to provably-fair draws, UK prize-draw rules, and what independent verification actually means.

A green Verified Draws verification page — proving an instant win competition was fair

Instant Win Competitions Explained: How They Work, Are They Legal in the UK, and How to Prove They're Fair

4 July 2026

Instant wins are the mechanic most exposed to the "rigged" accusation, because the winning ticket numbers are decided before a single ticket sells. A plain-English explainer of how they work, the honest UK legal line, and the narrow, provable fix: commit the winning numbers to a public randomness beacon before sale, then reveal — so any buyer can check the allocation was never steered.

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A fleet of hosted raffle storefronts — comparing the best raffle and competition software in the UK

Best Raffle & Competition Software in the UK (2026): An Honest Comparison

4 July 2026

A buyer's guide to the real UK competition-software landscape — hosted website builders, marketplaces, charity tools and the DIY WooCommerce stack — scored on what actually differs: time-to-launch, upkeep, payments, traffic-spike handling, and the one axis nobody else leads with: whether an entrant can independently verify the draw wasn't steered.

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A hosted RaffleForge raffle storefront on a secure subdomain — build a competition website without WordPress

Raffle Website vs WordPress: The True Cost of a WooCommerce Competition Site

4 July 2026

Building a competition website on WordPress, WooCommerce and a raffle plugin is the default — but "cheap to start" is not "cheap to run." An honest look at the real costs (hosting, security, plugin upkeep, performance, and no verifiable fairness) versus a hosted, provably-fair raffle platform.

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Verified Draws explainer — UK prize draws, drand and verifiable randomness

UK Prize Draws Are Changing: Why Verifiable Randomness Matters

11 June 2026

UK prize draws are entering a new phase: it is no longer enough for a winner to be random — the draw has to be checkable. A plain-English look at the DCMS Voluntary Code, distributed randomness, drand, and how Verified Draws makes results anyone can verify.

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A wrapped gift box — running a fair, verifiable giveaway

How to Run a Provably-Fair Giveaway: A Step-by-Step Guide for Operators

9 June 2026

You announce a winner and the replies fill with "rigged." The problem is rarely dishonesty — it is that nobody but you can check the result. Here is a practical, step-by-step guide to running a giveaway your audience can verify for themselves, plus a brief on the UK and platform rules that actually apply.

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A data-center server room — the lottery RNG that was rigged

Balls or Bytes: How a Lottery's Own Security Chief Rigged the Random Number Generator

9 June 2026

A 16.5-million-dollar jackpot nobody could safely claim. A self-deleting rootkit on a certified, audited lottery computer. And the man who planted it was the lottery's own information-security director. The Eddie Tipton case is the digital twin of physical ball-rigging — and the clearest argument we have that a draw you cannot independently verify is just trust, and trust breaks.

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Tuesday April 24 - 666 loto fix

The Triple Six Fix: How Paint Rigged a Live Lottery, and Why Provable Fairness Beats a Ball Machine

9 June 2026

On 24 April 1980, a live Pennsylvania lottery drew 6-6-6, rigged with paint injected into the balls by the man who hosted the show. It is the textbook case for a hard truth: watching a ball machine is not the same as being able to verify it. Here is the full story, told with the help of a CBS retrospective, a second draw that raised the same fear in Serbia, and why a commit-reveal draw on a public randomness beacon is something a ball machine can never be: independently checkable by anyone.

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Lottery balls in a draw machine — UK prize-draw verification

The UK's DCMS Code for Prize Draws: What “Independent Verification” Actually Means

9 June 2026

The DCMS Voluntary Code for prize-draw operators is now in effect. Here is what it asks for — and what independent draw verification really means.

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