Poll: Fundraising raffles/gambling.

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve got a question that has arisen out of a situation at my work. It’s a telefundraising centre for charitable organisations, and my boss (the owner of the company) is an observant Jew. Since the company began, the fundraising has always been via straight donations…no selling of towels or other bric-a-brac to raise the funds, no fluffy certificates of support…just give us yer’ money and we’ll send you a receipt next week sort of stuff. It IS tax-deductable that way though.

Now, a number of changes are being initiated this year. One (I’ll save the rant for another time) is the introduction of a predictive dialing system. Another is that the boss reckons that fundraising raffles are the new black or something.

A raffle (for those not familiar) is like a lottery ticket. You buy a ticket/s and if you are lucky, you win a prize. Tickets can range from AU$0.50c to AU$100 depending on whether it’s the local RSL or footy team running a chook raffle (yes, you win a chook or tray of meat :smiley: ) or something more sophisticated where houses, cars and gold bullion are offered. Raffles are only allowed in Australia as fundraising tools…the ‘profit’ (after the cost of prizes/admin) must go to a registered charity or community organisation. They have a long and proud tradition in Australia, and many small orgs would be defunct without running regular raffles to top up their coffers, but anyway…

By their nature, IMHO, raffles are also a form of gambling. Aware of my boss’ religious and ethical convictions, I brought my concerns to his attention yesterday, and he was gobsmacked. He had never thought of raffles as gambling, and only considered them a more ‘novel’ fundraising tool, even admitting that he had previously purchased raffle tickets himself to support various charities. He considers it a defacto donation: “It’s not like going to the Casino is it kambuckta”. :rolleyes:

Well, I reckon there is no fundamental difference between a raffle, buying a lottery ticket, or putting money in a slot-machine personally. It’s all just a matter of degree. Sure, you don’t see too many people addicted to buying raffle tickets, but selling them on behalf of a charity can put financially vulnerable people into situations where they feel desperate enough to buy a ticket/s in the hope of elevating themselves out of their current quagmire: benefitting the charity is, for some, the last thing on their mind…they are gambling, pure and simple.

What say Dopers? Are raffles a form of gambling, or are they something else again?

PS…after I confronted him yesterday, I think the boss is re-evaluating his proposed introduction of raffles. I hope I haven’t uspet the applecart too severely. :slight_smile:

2

I do know people who don’t buy raffle tickets because they’re a sort of gambling, even if it’s for charity. We don’t buy raffle tickets ourselves for that reason. I’d prefer to make a straight donation, but OTOH it’s true that raffles attract people (because they want a prize) and are often successful.

I don’t suppose a lot of gambling addicts are buying up raffle tickets by the gross, but yes, you’re hoping to win a prize that’s worth more than the ticket–that’s a kind of gambling.

3

I think you’re right that raffles are a form of gambling, but the image of someone desperately buying tickets in the hopes of winning a way out of their problems isn’t one that comes to mind easily … of course, I’m not a gambling addict and can’t relate to a lot of what they do, but it’s something I have a lot of trouble picturing. I think poker machines and horse racing are more problematic because of the seduction of the quick payout - you will win or lose nearly instantly on the pokies, and generally within the day for horse racing. Raffles aren’t typically drawn straight away, so they don’t offer the quick fix of other types of gambling. For that reason, I don’t imagine that they are as potentially damaging. That doesn’t mean that your point isn’t valid, just that it’s something that I think a lot of Australians wouldn’t realise posed a risk to those with gambling problems.

If your boss has banned gambling on religious grounds then I think it’s only consistent to ban raffles too.

4

Actually, that brings up an interesting point!! One of my co-workers opted to organise a workplace syndicate for the weekly Tattslotto draw…$3.00 a person, system entry etc, you know the drill. It was vetoed by the boss, so that any monetary transaction/s or signing up on the syndicate had to take place **outside ** of the workplace and outside of working hours so as not to offend his religious stance.

I’ll mention this on Monday (if by chance he hasn’t kyboshed the whole raffle idea in the meantime!!)

:wink:

5

Raffles are more self-limiting than other forms of gambling: not only is is rare for someone to be bit by the “raffle bug,” but usually the raffle ends at a set date.

And in some raffles, buying up as many tickets as you can is a rational strategy (“Kill Seth.” :wink: )

It’s still gambling, of course, but it’s not

*Referring to Seth Breidbart, science fiction fan and inventor of the Breidbart Index, a way of quantifying the “badness” of spam. The Lunacon SF convention has for years held a book raffle, with books donated by major publishers. Seth buys thousands of tickets (literally – I once saw him claim a book after the first three of six numbers were announced, since he had bought the whole thousand) and, due to the number of books in the raffle, ends up making his money back in books most years.