Are Raffles Allowed?

[Xor 684]

I understand that some games are allowed like Deal / No Deal at impalongs, so in theory raffles are allowed, but what about a paid entry raffle?

 

IE:

 

Pay 1 copper, and pick a number between 1 and 100

 

Once all 100 numbers have been chosen, the one in charge of the raffle can do a /random to decide on the winner.

 

Is this something allowed? Or not allowed as a sort of lottery / gambling.

[Kegan 3,926]

I dont see any rules against it in the rules section

[Xor 684]

Yeah, I think there is something somewhere that mentions gambling is not allowed though, which is why I brought it up.

 

Hoping a GM could pop their head in and give me a ruling haha

[Kegan 3,926]

Well i guess it would be best to pm Enki i am sure they would have to do the same thing anyway but i have never seen anything mentioned about gambling in any rules.

[Nomadikhan 2,196]

Look up the ToS and do a word search on it for "lottery" "Gamb" "raff" ?

 

Just throwing out ideas really.

[As_I_Decay 1,592]

Yeah, I think there is something somewhere that mentions gambling is not allowed though, which is why I brought it up.

 

Hoping a GM could pop their head in and give me a ruling haha

Not a GM, but I don't ever recall such a rule being in place. I've taken part in many in-game raffles over the years, never heard a complaint about them in game, nor in the forums.

Besides, anything that has to do with the economy in this game is a gamble, especially player to player transactions. Rolf and team have already brought gambling to the table, they can't make rules against it...

 

[Gumbo 1,563]

Rumour was that gambling/raffles were against the rules. I'd still check tho because things change. With DoND, there was no entry fee of cash to play, so no gambling or raffle occurred. Was only a give-away so to speak.

[Judicator 539]

Wow gambling scams blowing over from runescape?

[Xor 684]

Wow gambling scams blowing over from runescape?

Not sure what you mean? Feel free to elaborate since you're throwing a pretty insulting accusation.

[Sevenless 385]

Personally I would love to be able to have this type of event in game (raffles, wagers on events, etc). But I completely understand if they don't want to allow them under threat of scams. This isn't EVE after all, it's not anything goes really.

[Judicator 539]

Not sure what you mean? Feel free to elaborate since you're throwing a pretty insulting accusation.

 

 

Nobody can check if you're honest about them. You control the money people put in and the outcome of the draw. It's not a stretch to assume you're scamming people and pocketing the buy-ins.

Edited May 3, 2014 by Judicator

[Silvirwolfe 390]

There were raffles held at Willow's Impalongs at Festival Cove and also I held one at the Easter Festival recently. We had GM's that were at the events, knew about it and said nothing so I am assuming it is allowed. We entered everyone that entered into the previous raffles into the last one for the "pot" collected from the entries. People were assigned a number (in sequence) as they entered and then we used /roll <number> so people could see what was rolled.

Edited May 4, 2014 by Silvirwolfe

[necroe 696]

Nobody can check if you're honest about them. You control the money people put in and the outcome of the draw. It's not a stretch to assume you're scamming people and pocketing the buy-ins.

With that roll option he is talking about there wouldnt be a way to cheat like that as it shows the number he rolls in event tab

[Xor 684]

Nobody can check if you're honest about them. You control the money people put in and the outcome of the draw. It's not a stretch to assume you're scamming people and pocketing the buy-ins.

There is actually a lot new disclosure than you think.

Doing a /random roll shows the result in the event tab for all in range.

Charging the same amount per ticket, and sling a set number of tickets lets everyone know exactly what went in and what their odds are.

In fact, those two things alone leave no chance to scam other than collecting the money and running, which is something obviously possible it many other transactions that happen on a daily basis in the game.

Just like the other transactions, you'll want a reputable person in charge.

What about donating valuable items to an impalong? Who knows if they ever get handed out right?! /sarcasm

[Xor 684]

There were raffles held at Willow's Impalongs at Festival Cove and also I held one at the Easter Festival recently. We had GM's that were at the events, knew about it and said nothing so I am assuming it is allowed. We entered everyone that entered into the previous raffles into the last one for the "pot" collected from the entries.

Oh, you did charge an entry fee to get into the raffle though? I suppose that would be a perfect example for me.

[Silvirwolfe 390]

We did, it was 50c per entry. We held 2 raffles a day and you were allowed to enter 1 a day, but as many times in that 1 as you wanted. You got a separate number for each 50c you paid. The pot at the last raffle was the combined coin collected from the other raffles. Willow's was held that way as well iirc.

 

 

As far as valuable things given for prizes, I often turned down prize items outside of our alliance. We did receive a few big prize items, one of which I raffled for free, another was a prize in our egg hunt and 1 tower did not get raffled off, because we didn't have enough time. It's a matter of having trust in those that are running the event. If you don't think they are trust worthy, don't go or don't participate in that game.

Edited May 4, 2014 by Silvirwolfe

[ScarfaceRo 79]

I organized such events in other games and to avoid any scam fears, I used a different strategy, something that could be checked by anyone at any time - something connected with a RL event - like instead of a /roll, just say that the winning number is the third number from a RL lottery draw frim next day/weekend. Then anyone can check the result even if they were not on at drawing time.

Other ideas: last two digits of an exchange rate, of a stock value - anything that can't be predicted in any way and that is easily verifiable.

Yes, being trusted helps, but I'm an a$$ - I don't trust people and people don't trust me, so I always tried to find solutions where trust should not be a factor, but the info would come from an external third party which is totally under any doubt.

Edited May 4, 2014 by ScarfaceRo

[Seara 686]

Anything that involved paying for a chance to win something we would consider Gambling, and not approve. 

 

This is simply because it can fall under real-life legal jurisdiction, and is simply not something we want to expose the company to in case of troubles.

 

 

Anything that's not "Pay to play" should be alright though.

[As_I_Decay 1,592]

Anything that involved paying for a chance to win something we would consider Gambling, and not approve.

I think the answer everyone really wants from a GM or higher is: do you not approve or is it against the rules?

You don't approve of me sharing my account because it can be compromised, but there's no rule against it. You (the game staff) make it clear it is my liability. Same for account selling. 

I can't see why this would be any different, but you never know...

 

[Xor 684]

Anything that involved paying for a chance to win something we would consider Gambling, and not approve. 

 

This is simply because it can fall under real-life legal jurisdiction, and is simply not something we want to expose the company to in case of troubles.

 

 

Anything that's not "Pay to play" should be alright though.

I appreciate the response, can you clarify on whether it is something we will get in trouble for doing, or is it like account selling: 'do it at your own risk' we will not get involved?

[Seara 686]

While it's not explicitly called out in the rules or game agreement, any activity that may be, or even be considered to be, illegal would be stopped by the GM team.  We count Gambling as one of those activities.

 

This falls under the rule "B/ Players will obey any instructions given by a Game Master."  If we learn of any "Pay to play" games, we can and would tell you to stop them.

[Silvirwolfe 390]

I apologize then for the one held at the Easter Festival. It had been done before in past impalongs, so I assumed it was ok. If there is any repercussion for it, then I take full responsibility. 

Edited May 4, 2014 by Silvirwolfe

[Seara 686]

I apologize then for the one held at the Easter Festival. It had been done before in past impalongs, so I assumed it was ok. If there is any repercussion for it, then I take full responsibility. 

 

This is not something we would punish people for doing (unless they continued doing it after we had asked them to stop) ... it's just that we don't want to have the company endorse, or through inaction seem to endorse, activities that could be considered illegal in some jurisdictions, and potentially open us up to legal action. 

 

This is just a situation of "Better safe then sorry."  

[Jeixi 146]

What if someone put a bunch of locked chests by a merchant, and had the merchant sell keys for the chests, under the premise that one of them contained a rare or valuable item? 

[Seara 686]

What if someone put a bunch of locked chests by a merchant, and had the merchant sell keys for the chests, under the premise that one of them contained a rare or valuable item? 

 

That's gambling ... need to pay-to-play and you have a large chance to lose the money.