What is an art union?

The plain definition

An art union is a lottery run by a charity or not-for-profit that gives away a fixed prize, with a guaranteed winner in every draw. The organisation sells tickets, buys or builds the prize out of what it takes in, and keeps the surplus to fund its cause. The prize these days is usually a house, sometimes a car, cash or gold, but the format is the same one whether it is a million-dollar beach home or a raffle at the local footy club.

Two features make it an art union rather than something else. First, it is run for a charitable purpose, not for a company's profit. Second, the prize has to be handed over. It cannot be cancelled or rolled into next time if ticket sales are slow. Somebody wins, every draw, full stop.

Where the name comes from

This one throws people, because there is usually no art in sight. The term dates to the 1800s, when societies in Britain and later in the Australian colonies raised money by selling subscriptions and giving away paintings and sculptures as prizes. They were literally unions of people pooling money to support the arts, hence "art union". The artworks are long gone. The legal category, and the name, stuck around and got written into gaming law. So today an art union is any charity lottery of that type, whether the prize is a Ken Done print or a penthouse at Hope Island.

How it differs from Lotto and a normal raffle

People lump all of these together as "the lottery", but they are not the same thing.

A backyard raffle at a fete is technically the same family as an art union, just tiny and often run under a simpler permit. The big prize home draws are the same idea scaled up to millions of dollars, which is exactly why they need a proper gaming licence and independent draws to run.

Who runs art unions in Australia

The big ones are all household charity names. Between them they give away dozens of homes a year:

• RSL Art Union, run by RSL Queensland for veterans and their families, is the biggest by prize value. Its draws trade under the Dream Home Art Union banner.
• Mater Prize Home, funding hospital care and medical research in Queensland, is the most searched of the lot.
• yourtown Prize Homes, which pays for Kids Helpline.
• Endeavour Prize Homes, supporting people living with disability.
• The Deaf Lottery and Surf Life Saving Lotteries, among others.

Why charities use them

An art union raises far more money than passing a bucket around. A charity can put up a house that costs a few million, sell hundreds of thousands of tickets against it, and clear a healthy surplus for its programs while giving one supporter a life-changing prize. Donors get something back for their money, or at least a chance at it, which loosens wallets that would never respond to a straight ask. For a lot of these organisations, the art union is the single biggest source of unrestricted funding they have.

Are they legal?

Yes, when they are run properly. An art union has to be operated by a registered charity or not-for-profit and licensed under the gaming laws of its home state or territory. Many of Australia's biggest run out of Queensland under the Charitable and Non-Profit Gaming Act 1999, regulated by the Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation, which sets the rules on how prizes are offered, drawn and awarded. That licensing is what separates a real art union from a dodgy "giveaway" on social media. If you want to sanity-check any operator yourself, we walk through it in our guide on whether prize home lotteries are legit.