How much should a pub quiz cost to enter?

A pound or two per person is normal in most UK pubs, and up to three is not unusual. Charge per head rather than per team if you can, so that a big team does not pay the same as a pair.

Can a pub quiz have a cash prize?

Yes, in England, Wales and Scotland, when the winner is decided by who answers the most questions correctly. The Gambling Commission treats a competition decided by knowledge as a prize competition, which needs no licence. Anything where chance decides the winner, such as drawing names for the jackpot, is different and worth checking with your licensing authority first.

Should the pub keep the entry money?

It can, as long as you say so. Many pubs put all of it into the prize and make their money at the bar, and many keep some of it to pay a host. The only wrong answer is telling the room the money goes somewhere it does not.

How much to charge for a pub quiz

Pub quiz entry fees: what pubs usually charge, per head or per team, where the money should go, how a rollover jackpot works and where the law draws a line.

Last reviewed 4 November 2026

The short answer

Most pub quizzes in the UK charge a pound or two a head, and a few charge up to three. Pick a number nobody has to think about. If a table has to discuss whether the quiz is worth it, the price is wrong.

The entry fee is not where a quiz night makes money for the pub. The bar is. What the fee does is fund the prize and make people commit: a table that has paid stays until the end, and a table that came in free drifts off at the break.

Per head or per team

Per head is fairer and scales with the room. A table of six pays more than a table of two, which is right, because they are more likely to win.

A flat fee per team has one advantage: it is quicker to collect. Its drawback is that it rewards big teams, and a quiz where eight people split one entry fee is a quiz the pairs stop coming to.

If you charge per team, set a maximum team size and say it on the poster.

Whether to charge at all

Free entry is a good way to start a new quiz night, because it removes the one reason a curious table has for not trying it. It is a poor way to run an established one, because nothing makes people stay.

A pattern that works: free for the first month while the night finds its regulars, then a small charge, announced a fortnight before it starts. The people who complain about a pound are rarely the people who were going to keep coming.

Where the money goes

There are three honest answers. Pick one and say it out loud on the night.

All of it goes into the prize: The room is playing for the room's money, which people like, and the prize grows with the turnout. The pub's return is what the tables spend at the bar.
The pub keeps it: To cover a host's fee or the cost of running the quiz, with a fixed prize such as a bar tab. Perfectly reasonable, as long as nobody is told their money is going somewhere it is not.
A split: Half to the prize and half to the pub, or the pub keeps the first fifteen pounds and the rest goes in the pot. The usual answer once a quiz has a hired host to pay.

How a rollover jackpot works

A rollover is a second prize that has to be earned rather than simply won. The usual versions are a final jackpot question that only the winning team gets to try, or a target score that nobody has reached yet. If nobody wins it, the money rolls over to next week and the pot grows.

It works because it gives a team that is losing on the night something to come back for. It goes wrong when it gets so large that it changes who turns up, which is the argument the prize guide makes for keeping it modest.

Write the rules down where everyone can see them, put a cap on the pot, and decide now what happens to it if the quiz stops or the host leaves. That last one is the source of most rollover arguments, and it is far easier to settle while the jackpot is small.

Where the law comes in

This applies to England, Wales and Scotland, where the Gambling Act 2005 is the law. Northern Ireland has its own rules. None of this is legal advice.

A quiz where the prize goes to the team that answers the most questions correctly is decided by knowledge. The Gambling Commission treats a competition decided by skill, knowledge or judgement as a prize competition rather than a lottery, and says you do not need a licence or permission to run one, provided it is run in a way that meets the Act.

The trouble starts where people have paid and chance decides who wins. Drawing a team out of a hat for the jackpot, a card game such as chase the ace bolted onto the end of the quiz, or a raffle at the break can each count as a lottery or as gaming, and those come with rules and limits of their own.

The Commission also says the skill has to be real: it should put some people off entering and stop a proportion of those who enter from winning. Its page warns that multiple choice questions rarely meet that test. The warning is aimed at the familiar 'answer one easy question to enter the draw' competition, where a right answer gets you into a draw and luck picks the winner. A quiz where the prize goes to the highest score over forty questions is decided by the score. The case worth asking about is a short, easy quiz with a large cash prize.

Two rules keep a normal pub quiz on the right side of that line. Settle a tie with a question, not a coin. And if you want to add anything that relies on luck, ask your local licensing authority before you advertise it, not after.

Quick answers

How much should a pub quiz cost to enter?: A pound or two per person is normal in most UK pubs, and up to three is not unusual. Charge per head rather than per team if you can, so that a big team does not pay the same as a pair.
Can a pub quiz have a cash prize?: Yes, in England, Wales and Scotland, when the winner is decided by who answers the most questions correctly. The Gambling Commission treats a competition decided by knowledge as a prize competition, which needs no licence. Anything where chance decides the winner, such as drawing names for the jackpot, is different and worth checking with your licensing authority first.
Should the pub keep the entry money?: It can, as long as you say so. Many pubs put all of it into the prize and make their money at the bar, and many keep some of it to pay a host. The only wrong answer is telling the room the money goes somewhere it does not.

Settle every tie with a question

Scores are kept on the players' phones as each question closes, so the winner and any tie are on the screen the moment the last round ends. The first session is free.

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