Short answer: a prize draw at a corporate event in Turkey normally needs a permit from the National Lottery Administration (Milli Piyango İdaresi), and that permit has to be in hand at least fifteen days before the campaign starts. Free entry does not change this. The Regulation on Non-Cash Lotteries and Draws, published in Official Gazette no. 26309 of 4 October 2006, covers arrangements where the ticket, coupon or entry number is handed out at no charge. There is an exemption list, but it is narrow. Draws held exclusively among a company's dealers, in the nature of a turnover bonus, sit outside the rules, as do draws where the market value of the prize one person can win stays below 1,338.70 lira for 2026. The process changed this year too: since 2 February 2026 applications are filed through the Administration's online platform at cekilisevi.gov.tr rather than on paper. Below: scope, exemptions, the application timeline, the fees, the notary step, tax, and what happens if you skip the permit.
Do you need a permit to run a prize draw at an event in Turkey?
Article 7 of the Regulation is a single sentence: anyone who decides to organise a lottery must apply to the Administration and obtain a permit. Article 6 lists who may organise one, and real and legal persons engaged in commercial activity head that list. The definition that sets the scope sits in Article 4: a non-cash lottery is an arrangement where the right to take part is granted by selling or freely distributing tickets, coupons, entry numbers or similar, and the winners of the promised prizes are decided by a draw. The word freely does the heavy lifting. A numbered card left on a guest's table and a QR entry form both land inside that definition. The second boundary is the prize itself. The Regulation governs non-cash lotteries only, and its definition of cash takes in gold, platinum and similar precious metals, diamonds and comparable stones, any item made from them, convertible foreign currency, shares and bonds. Article 8 then bans paying out the cash value of a prize or converting it into money. That is why the gold coin idea, a regular in stage run-throughs, falls at the first hurdle. The prize has to be goods or services.
Which draws fall outside the permit rules?
Article 2 sets out seven categories that stay outside the Regulation, and four of them matter for event work. The first is the meeting exemption. Draws run by public institutions, associations, foundations, sports clubs, school parent unions, pension and mutual aid funds and religious communities at their entertainment, commemoration or celebration gatherings are excluded, provided they involve only the people attending and are both started and finished within the meeting. Read that list carefully, because commercial companies are not on it. A draw at a company's year end party is not treated the same way as a draw at an association's gala. The second is the gift for everyone format: handing a prize to everyone who meets conditions announced in advance, with no draw at all, falls outside. The third is competitions. Where no fee is charged and the arrangement does not serve the marketing or sale of a product or service, contests decided by knowledge, skill or talent are excluded. The fourth is a value threshold, and the arithmetic is simple: no permit is required where the market value of the prize a single person can win falls below 2 percent of the exemption in Article 4(e) of the Inheritance and Transfer Tax Law no. 7338. General Communiqué no. 57, published in the repeated Official Gazette no. 33124 of 31 December 2025, set that exemption at 66,935 lira for 2026, which puts the threshold at 1,338.70 lira. Small gifts left on the table stay under it. A holiday, a bike or a phone handed out from the stage does not.
Why is a dealer meeting draw treated differently?
Article 2(b) names this format directly: draws a company runs exclusively among its master dealers and dealers, to increase sales of goods and services, to decide prizes and gifts in the nature of a turnover bonus, fall outside the Regulation. Three conditions apply, and all three at once. The draw covers dealers only, the purpose is to lift sales, and what is handed over has the character of a turnover bonus. If journalists, corporate customers or head office staff also go into the hat, the exclusivity breaks. That is precisely the gap between an award for dealer of the year and a car drawn from the full guest list. When a format sits in the grey zone, do not guess. Article 7 says applicants are notified in writing when their arrangement is found to fall outside the Regulation, so obtaining a written opinion is part of the process, and you end up holding a document. Months later, when someone asks the question, that document is the shortest possible answer.
How do you apply? The rule changed on 2 February 2026
The deadline sits in Article 12: applicants must file with all requested documents and information at least fifteen days before the campaign start date, and must pay the application and permit fees into the Administration's accounts. Once the file is complete, applications are concluded within five working days at the latest and the outcome is notified in writing or online. The channel itself changed this year. The National Lottery Administration opened its own online draw platform, and lottery and draw applications previously accepted in person or by post moved to cekilisevi.gov.tr on 2 February 2026. You have to register on the site before filing, and the procedure makes no distinction between organisers applying in their own name and agents applying under a power of attorney. Article 9 lists the file contents: campaign start and end dates, the provinces and districts covered, entry terms, the number, type and market value of the prizes, the date, time and address of the draw, the number of reserve winners, how results will be announced within seven days of the draw at the latest, application and delivery periods for main and reserve winners, a notarised signature declaration, documents evidencing prize values, proof of security, and receipts for the fees. Real estate and unusual prizes also require an expert valuation report. Build the calendar accordingly: fifteen days plus five working days of review, plus the time it takes to gather the paperwork, is a four week job in practice.
What does a prize draw cost? Application fee, permit fee and security
Three line items. First, the application fee. The provision added to Article 41 of Decree Law no. 320 on the National Lottery, published in Official Gazette no. 32008 of 9 November 2022, sets a 2,000 lira application fee for permit requests covering non-cash lotteries. The same provision states that this amount is increased each year, effective from the start of the calendar year, by the revaluation rate determined under the Tax Procedure Law, and since the rate announced for 2025 was 25.49 percent, the 2026 figure sits well above the statutory base. Second, the permit fee, and this is the real number: where a permit is granted, a fee equal to 15 percent of the total market value of the promised prizes, awards or similar benefits is charged. Where the prizes are imported, or produced, supplied or traded by other real or legal persons, the rate doubles to 30 percent. Public institutions, tax exempt foundations and associations working for the public benefit pay neither fee. Third, security. Article 11 of the Regulation requires security equal to the total market value of the promised prizes plus 10 percent, and where more than six months pass between the campaign start and the final prize delivery date, security can be set at up to that value plus 50 percent. Put numbers on it. For a locally sourced prize package with a market value of 200,000 lira, the permit fee is 30,000 lira and the security is 220,000 lira. If the same package is imported, the permit fee climbs to 60,000 lira. Under Article 33 the security is released once the commitments are documented as fulfilled and the objection period has closed, so budget for an amount that sits blocked for a while.
Draw day: notary, reserve winners and the newspaper notice
Article 18 describes how the draw itself has to run, and it feeds straight into the show flow. The draw must start at the address, on the date and at the time stated in the permit letter. As a rule it takes place somewhere open to the public where anyone who wants to can watch comfortably. A committee made up of the organiser's authorised representatives conducts it in the presence of a notary, and where the Administration considers it necessary, its own representative attends as well. Winning numbers and winners are recorded in a minute drawn up in at least three copies, signed by the committee, certified by the notary, with one copy sent to the Administration after the draw. For commercial lotteries, reserve winners are also determined, up to the number of main winners. Translated into a run of show: if the draw happens on stage, the notary is invited for that slot and the schedule leaves room for them to do their job. Announcing the results is a separate obligation. Article 23 requires publication in a local newspaper where the lottery covers a single province or district, and in at least one nationally published newspaper where it spans more than one province. Under Article 24, main winners have fifteen days from the announcement and notification to claim their prize and reserve winners the following fifteen days, and delivery cannot run beyond one year from the campaign start. One more limit sits in Article 13: campaigns longer than six months are not permitted.
Who pays the tax? The 20 percent withholding and the 66,935 lira exemption
The tax sits with the winner, and no contract clause moves it. The final paragraph of Article 16 of the Inheritance and Transfer Tax Law no. 7338 sets the rate at 20 percent for prizes won in competitions and draws organised by real and legal persons, and adds that where the prize is paid in kind, the invoice value is taken as the base. The exemption in Article 4(e) stands at 66,935 lira for 2026, and tax is calculated on the portion above it. The organiser is the party that withholds and declares. Article 7 obliges those organising competitions and draws to report the tax withheld from winners' prizes by declaration, and Article 9 sets the deadline at the end of the twentieth day of the month following the draw. A winner whose prize has been subject to withholding does not file a separate return for it. The most common mistake here comes from good intentions. Article 8 of the Regulation lists, among prohibited acts, assuming taxes and other legal obligations beyond those already included in the price of the prize. In other words, telling guests the tax is on us is not allowed. Article 15 requires the opposite: every piece of promotion, notice and advertising has to carry the date and number of the permit, the warning that under eighteens cannot take part and will not receive a prize even if they do, and the statement that taxes are paid by the winners.
What happens if you skip the permit, and how to build the timeline
The consequences are not limited to administrative fines. Article 52 of Decree Law no. 320, rewritten on 9 November 2022, provides for three to five years in prison and a judicial fine of up to ten thousand days for anyone who runs any kind of goods lottery, or provides the place or means for one to be run, without authority or permission granted under the legislation. For organisers who hold a permit but fail to hold the draw, fail to announce the results or fail to meet their commitments, the penalty is two months to two years in prison and a judicial fine of up to three thousand days. The same article states that premises where these offences are committed are sealed and closed for up to three months by the senior civil administrator, without prior warning. The Regulation adds two more outcomes: Article 25 has the civil administrator halt the activity immediately and collect the notices, advertisements and entry materials, while Article 27 bars organisers who breach the rules from obtaining a lottery permit for two years, doubled on repetition. Build the calendar backwards. Start from the draw date, add seven days for the results announcement, the campaign period, the fifteen day application window and the five working day review, then put the prize valuation documents, expert report, bank guarantee and notary appointment at the very front. The short version: file the application before you design the invitation, because the permit date and number have to appear on your announcements. Tales Event is based in Istanbul and runs dealer meetings, product launches, openings, gala nights and graduation ceremonies across Turkey, handling stage, sound, lighting and LED screen production with a single team. Send us the event date, the guest profile and the prize you have in mind, and we will map the draw against the permit calendar, the notary plan and the stage flow.
Let's talk about your event
Tell us your idea and we will prepare the concept and quote.