🎲 HCPT (Hosanna House and Children’s Pilgrimage Trust)

This organisation is a charitable society lottery operator licensed in Great Britain to raise funds for its charitable activities. It is currently authorised by the Gambling Commission to run non-remote and ancillary remote society lotteries. Its core purpose is charitable rather than commercial gambling, and it operates lotteries as a means of fundraising.

The organisation traces its origins to 1956, when Dr Michael Strode organised an initial pilgrimage to Lourdes, France, for a small group of disabled children. Over time, this activity developed into a structured charity providing pilgrimage holidays for disabled and disadvantaged children and adults. The charity later incorporated Hosanna House Trust, originally created to serve young adults, into a combined structure often referred to as “HCPT – The Pilgrimage Trust” in 1998.

The entity is registered as a charity in England and Wales and in Scotland, and it runs organised group pilgrimages, primarily to Lourdes, for children, adults, and other groups including UK armed forces veterans with disabilities or special needs. Its residential facilities in and around Lourdes, including a larger group centre and a smaller self-catering property, are used to host these pilgrimages and respite breaks.

Licensing and Operations

The organisation holds an operating licence from the Gambling Commission in Great Britain. According to the public register, its status is active and it is authorised to provide:

• Society Lottery (non-remote)
• Society Lottery ancillary remote services

The non-remote society lottery authorisation, active since 31 March 2009, permits the organisation to promote and conduct lotteries for the benefit of a non-commercial society, with proceeds applied to its charitable purposes. The ancillary remote authorisation, active since 13 October 2022, allows the sale or promotion of lottery participation by remote means where this is ancillary to its main non-remote lottery activity.

The organisation uses these licences to operate society lotteries as a fundraising mechanism, including the Bernadette Club Lottery. Under published lottery rules, a defined proportion of proceeds is allocated to charitable purposes, with further proportions dedicated to prizes and administrative costs. The Gambling Commission’s register records no licensed gambling premises for this operator and no recorded domain names associated with its licence.

Lottery operations are overseen by a designated responsible person named on the licence, and the organisation maintains documented procedures for handling complaints and disputes. Unresolved disputes may be referred to an independent alternative dispute resolution provider. The charity also provides contact details and information resources for participants in connection with its lottery activities.

Regulatory History

As of the latest available information from the Gambling Commission public register, the operator’s gambling licences are active, and there is no published record on the register of regulatory enforcement action, sanctions, or licence suspensions in relation to this account. If any such actions had been taken and recorded by the Commission, they would ordinarily appear in the licence history associated with the operator’s account.