question concerning a type of raffle

[Twinkledoe]

1. decreasing the number of slots - ok so not 100 - what about 50?
2. allowing people to put in more - I like this because everyone could put in what they want, what they are willing to risk. The winner(s) are still entitled to half the pot - I say winner(s) because of the next point
3. having more than one winner - maybe do 5 winners? where each get 15% - and this is more than 50% which is the next point I liked
4. increasing reward ratio from 50% to 75% - with 25% going to the charity. I would like to give more to a charity but I understand that if the ratio is too low, there are not enough joining and thus nothing goes to the charity

1.50 slots is considerable but the amount shouldnt really be on fixed ones.
2.It would be unfair on general sense yet you do bet more but you do get equal prize.
3.Its preferable and much be more preferred rather than on seeing just 1 winner.
4. Even 80% would do and 20% would go to charity.

Its good that you do have considered on listening up on community feedbacks.

1. in a community of thousands, I do not think 50 is that much but maybe it is?
2. true with multiple winners it would not be fair to make the prizes equal in that regard. so possible set limit on price per entry - but maybe allow people who want to risk more to be able to buy more than one slot?
3. agreed.
4. maybe 75-80 %

@OP, do you think you can make it even one round of this lottery of yours? There are pretty good suggestions here and maybe try it. You will see what kind of attention you will get if you will make it happen. But if this will end up in talks only, you will not get further useful feedbacks because we don't know what went wrong, right?

[Wexnident]

thank you all for your comments! I was not really looking at doing it as a way to give away items - I do that in the collectible section from time to time as both free and paid raffles.

I was looking at as a means for the community to give back to the world outside of the forums - with one lucky person winning half the pot.

Ideas that I liked from the above comments:

1. decreasing the number of slots - ok so not 100 - what about 50?
2. allowing people to put in more - I like this because everyone could put in what they want, what they are willing to risk. The winner(s) are still entitled to half the pot - I say winner(s) because of the next point
3. having more than one winner - maybe do 5 winners? where each get 15% - and this is more than 50% which is the next point I liked
4. increasing reward ratio from 50% to 75% - with 25% going to the charity. I would like to give more to a charity but I understand that if the ratio is too low, there are not enough joining and thus nothing goes to the charity

Idk much about how the blocks work, or their sequence for that matter, but does it guarantee that all numbers from 0-99 show up on the future blocks? Just asking!

1. 50 should be more than enough, but make a minimum-maximum amount of participants so that some people wouldn't be left out by being late on the party possibly.
2. This should work. Though set a limit of maybe 2 or 3 additional slots though.

2. true with multiple winners it would not be fair to make the prizes equal in that regard. so possible set limit on price per entry - but maybe allow people who want to risk more to be able to buy more than one 

3. Nothing to say here
4. If you want, you can try using the 80-20 posted above, and the remaining 5 would be given to a random lucky winner again (everyone including the 5 winners has a chance), or redistributed to the ones that lost, though that amount is low as hell by then, so the former could be the best option.

There's a chance that no more than 50 people would join though, so adjusting some stuff there could possibly work. You can also try out what you did in the past, collectibles, add that as a win or something. Pretty optional, like only the 1st or 2nd winner could have them. Or add that to the guy who would win the 5% I said above.

[MoparMiningLLC]

1. decreasing the number of slots - ok so not 100 - what about 50?
2. allowing people to put in more - I like this because everyone could put in what they want, what they are willing to risk. The winner(s) are still entitled to half the pot - I say winner(s) because of the next point
3. having more than one winner - maybe do 5 winners? where each get 15% - and this is more than 50% which is the next point I liked
4. increasing reward ratio from 50% to 75% - with 25% going to the charity. I would like to give more to a charity but I understand that if the ratio is too low, there are not enough joining and thus nothing goes to the charity

1.50 slots is considerable but the amount shouldnt really be on fixed ones.
2.It would be unfair on general sense yet you do bet more but you do get equal prize.
3.Its preferable and much be more preferred rather than on seeing just 1 winner.
4. Even 80% would do and 20% would go to charity.

Its good that you do have considered on listening up on community feedbacks.

1. in a community of thousands, I do not think 50 is that much but maybe it is?
2. true with multiple winners it would not be fair to make the prizes equal in that regard. so possible set limit on price per entry - but maybe allow people who want to risk more to be able to buy more than one slot?
3. agreed.
4. maybe 75-80 %

@OP, do you think you can make it even one round of this lottery of yours? There are pretty good suggestions here and maybe try it. You will see what kind of attention you will get if you will make it happen. But if this will end up in talks only, you will not get further useful feedbacks because we don't know what went wrong, right?

I do plan on trying to do one yes. whether it works or not we will see. I will plan to post it around first of September.

[Debonaire217]

Idk much about how the blocks work, or their sequence for that matter, but does it guarantee that all numbers from 0-99 show up on the future blocks? Just asking!

With regards to the possible outcome, yes 0-99 will be available since we will select the last 2 number characters in the blocks. If I am not mistaken, some raffle have already done this and the most famous one is from krogothmanhattan.
 
I am just not sure if there will be someone that will manage this because it is a big task to manage a lottery, to be always updated without anything to get. Perhaps, we could allot a small percentage of the pool to someone who wants to manage.

Though, I like the idea of this kind of raffle, it will help us allot with just small amount of BTC and if we lose, we know that a charity will benefit from it.

[MoparMiningLLC]

Idk much about how the blocks work, or their sequence for that matter, but does it guarantee that all numbers from 0-99 show up on the future blocks? Just asking!

With regards to the possible outcome, yes 0-99 will be available since we will select the last 2 number characters in the blocks. If I am not mistaken, some raffle have already done this and the most famous one is from krogothmanhattan.
 
I am just not sure if there will be someone that will manage this because it is a big task to manage a lottery, to be always updated without anything to get. Perhaps, we could allot a small percentage of the pool to someone who wants to manage.

Though, I like the idea of this kind of raffle, it will help us allot with just small amount of BTC and if we lose, we know that a charity will benefit from it.

I am not looking for someone to manage it, I plan to manage it myself - Just curious if there was interest and for ideal on how to improve my original idea.

[LoyceV]

At my job - once every quarter - they pass around the option for employees to participate in a 50/50 raffle - where everyone puts in $10 and receives a number  00 to 99 - at the end of the week, the boss uses one of those wire basket ball selectors and selects a winner - the winner takes 50% of the pot and the company puts the other half in petty cash, which is spent on company luncheons etc

While reading this I expected your boss to double the amount, this sounds like a very cheap way for your boss to pay for company luncheons (I did learn a new word!). Maybe suggest your boss to increase the amount and double it into petty cash?

Would something like that work here with crypto?

From what I've seen back in the days at Rollin Lottery, there aren't many participants. Even when it's EV+ (because of a donation added to the prize pool), not many people join. And when people do join, they often complain about the winner.
The only thing I've seen that works, is if there's a social aspect to it: active users in a chat for instance, or probably the thing at your job. That may also explain the success of raffles on the Collectibles board: it's a tight community.

the other half could be donated to a charity organization

If it's EV-, I expect even less people to join, unless you make the charity the main event and the raffle a social thing for joining.

[ongkok87]

Yes that is form of gambling but I don't think it would work on this forum we all know that the percentage of winning is very low and only users will going to join knows that the chance of losing it very small. You could try a small amount may $1 per slot and user might win $99 or maybe $79 and the remaining $20 could be saved for jackpot etc. It's worth trying maybe many users would join and if not you could just refund their money.

[Mbitr]

Great idea Mopar , I was trying to work out something similar and had the exact same queries/ headaches.
I’ll certainly buy a few tickets !
If you are still looking for a charity, this is a great one to support

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5246208.0

[imstillthebest]

Yes that is form of gambling but I don't think it would work on this forum we all know that the percentage of winning is very low and only users will going to join knows that the chance of losing it very small. You could try a small amount may $1 per slot and user might win $99 or maybe $79 and the remaining $20 could be saved for jackpot etc. It's worth trying maybe many users would join and if not you could just refund their money.

you said the chance of winning is small but your suggested fee is 1 usd ? that 1 usd is huge and the prize would be more bigger than 99 dollars because this was a kind of raffle and raffles are simillar to lottery that chance of winning is also small  .

lotto or any kind of raffle are known to have a high prize . this is gambling and it will work best inside a seperate site and  not on this forum

[Mauser]

Would this be considered gambling? Is there even a chance that this could or would work here on the forums?

Yes this is definitely gambling because you put in 10$ and have a 1/100 chance of winning, like any lottery. I think this is a good idea for this forum. There are many trusted users here who would easily function as escrow and another for lottery management. Some part of the winning would need to be used as fees for the two.

The only problem I would assume would be choosing which numbers to pick. Easiest would be if you assign the 100 participants a random number but I bet people would prefer to choose their own numbers. But then most people would try to pick their lucky numbers like 3,6, 13, or 19. It could be hard to fill all 100 numbers.

[MoparMiningLLC]

Would this be considered gambling? Is there even a chance that this could or would work here on the forums?

Yes this is definitely gambling because you put in 10$ and have a 1/100 chance of winning, like any lottery. I think this is a good idea for this forum. There are many trusted users here who would easily function as escrow and another for lottery management. Some part of the winning would need to be used as fees for the two.

The only problem I would assume would be choosing which numbers to pick. Easiest would be if you assign the 100 participants a random number but I bet people would prefer to choose their own numbers. But then most people would try to pick their lucky numbers like 3,6, 13, or 19. It could be hard to fill all 100 numbers.

I do not need escrow (I provide escrow on these forums) I also do not need someone to manage it (I will) and there is no fee for myself - the goal is to raise funds for a charity not myself.

I was thinking to let people pick their own numbers - I do see your point in that some may not participate if they do not get their number - so that would be an issue as well if the numbers were randomly assigned as well.

[milewilda]

Would this be considered gambling? Is there even a chance that this could or would work here on the forums?

Yes this is definitely gambling because you put in 10$ and have a 1/100 chance of winning, like any lottery. I think this is a good idea for this forum. There are many trusted users here who would easily function as escrow and another for lottery management. Some part of the winning would need to be used as fees for the two.

The only problem I would assume would be choosing which numbers to pick. Easiest would be if you assign the 100 participants a random number but I bet people would prefer to choose their own numbers. But then most people would try to pick their lucky numbers like 3,6, 13, or 19. It could be hard to fill all 100 numbers.

I do not need escrow (I provide escrow on these forums) I also do not need someone to manage it (I will) and there is no fee for myself - the goal is to raise funds for a charity not myself.

I was thinking to let people pick their own numbers - I do see your point in that some may not participate if they do not get their number - so that would be an issue as well if the numbers were randomly assigned as well.

Do you plan on making a sole website for this or would just make a thread on this forum just like on what we do saw on common giveaway or lottery thread?

[dothebeats]

This is still gambling though in a good cause. The only issue is who would organize and facilitate the draw? This could be done in this forum too, with a bunch of trusted members who built their reputation over time and proved themselves worthy of some trust. Anyway, you, the OP can do this and just provide us with a list of charities you have in mind should you continue with the idea. Also it will be good if people can choose numbers for their own at a first-come-first-serve basis to ‘at least’ give a little freedom to participants on this lottery.

Totally doable and a nice concept, since I know most gamblers here are itching to play new stuff.

[Saint-loup]

At my job - once every quarter - they pass around the option for employees to participate in a 50/50 raffle - where everyone puts in $10 and receives a number  00 to 99 - at the end of the week, the boss uses one of those wire basket ball selectors and selects a winner - the winner takes 50% of the pot and the company puts the other half in petty cash, which is spent on company luncheons etc

Would something like that work here with crypto? Say for example, create 100 slots: 00 - 99  and everyone puts in $10 or even $5 worth of Bitcoin or Litecoin or Ethereum even (I would suggest staying with some of the more popular cryptos) once all 100 slots have been bought - select a future bitcoin block and use the last 2 numbers of that block to determine the winner.

for example:

0000000000000000000c93cdcb0f51dabfc547e4960b84cc675d5407f290268a  - 68 is the winner
0000000000000000000a0ab5bf76c9dabbb14d32632efb92e80ff237121d9703 - 03 is the winner
00000000000000000003e4f14676347e82158f367a6657115ab4b3e935bc74a9 - 49 is the winner

The winner would collect half the collected value (could accept is 50% of each donated currency or opt to have it all converted to one specific and take payout) - the other half could be donated to a charity organization - obviously proof of the donation would be necessary. And may need to set up some sort of selection process for choosing which charities. But I see this as an easy way to give participants a chance at winning a decent prize while also contributing aide and funds via crypto to various charity organizations.

Would this be considered gambling? Is there even a chance that this could or would work here on the forums?

Yes it could be a good idea but half of the bets going to a third party, it's huge and most people won't be interesting by a house edge as big as that.
20% or 10% would be more attractive IMHO

[MoparMiningLLC]

Do you plan on making a sole website for this or would just make a thread on this forum just like on what we do saw on common giveaway or lottery thread?

It would be on the forums.

This is still gambling though in a good cause. The only issue is who would organize and facilitate the draw? This could be done in this forum too, with a bunch of trusted members who built their reputation over time and proved themselves worthy of some trust. Anyway, you, the OP can do this and just provide us with a list of charities you have in mind should you continue with the idea. Also it will be good if people can choose numbers for their own at a first-come-first-serve basis to ‘at least’ give a little freedom to participants on this lottery.

Totally doable and a nice concept, since I know most gamblers here are itching to play new stuff.

Thank you - when I post it, the post will contain a list of charities - when people join the raffle/lottery they would post their transaction id and mention the charity they would like to see receive the funds - count those like votes, the charity with the most mentions will be the one that funds go to.

Yes it could be a good idea but half of the bets going to a third party, it's huge and most people won't be interesting by a house edge as big as that.
20% or 10% would be more attractive IMHO

As stated a few other posts up - I would entertain the idea of having maybe 4-5 winners and providing 75%-80% to the winners with 25%-20% going to the charity.

I will be taking zero percentage - some may find that hard to believe but having lost 2 family members to COVID and at least 6 family members to various forms of cancer, I already make personal donations to several agencies. This idea was spurred when I read about an unnamed early bitcoiner that made a fortune and decided to give vast quantities to various charities - while I do not have vast amounts of Bitcoin to do that with, I would like to see the crypto community do something similar - now if I need to offer a prize, so be it I cannot fault that at all.

I will be looking to do this start of September.

[yazher]

In this forum there are 2 types of raffles, one is when you need to pay to join and the other one is a free raffle like you don't need to pay anything just post your number. there are lots of them in games and rounds. The first one will be considered gambling since you are gonna pay with an odd chance to win but not 100% sure. while the other one is not because that does not involve any money in your pocket.

[Shasha80]

What you tell a type of raffle in the opening post includes gambling, I prefer to call it a lottery. Actually your idea is very good,
by holding raffle on this forum. With the level of trust you have, surely many members here participate in the raffle that will be
held by you. Moreover, the rewards offer is quite large, 75%-80% of the money raised from participants. My advice is that every
participant is drawn a fee of $ 5. Not too big a value for issued by participants and not burdensome. I will continue to monitor
this thread, to know the progress.

[jademaxsuy]

Yes it is lottery. And in this case there are many of here offering this kind of gambling. Try to check establish crypto gambling sites and see it for yourself that there are winners already in doing lottery. Even here in the forum I guess someone had organize a lottery but it was being escrow to a certain user for all we know that funds should be secure. Payments should be done using escrow service if lottery is to be done here.

But usually gamblers will play lottery at establish gambling site. Therr are many gambling to start playing lottery.

[maydna]

Would this be considered gambling? Is there even a chance that this could or would work here on the forums?

What happens in your company consider as gambling because you and other employee have to participate to puts in $10 for every people, and I think that is kind of lottery. We don't know if a chance that could work here if you don't try, but I wonder how it will look like because if we send some money to buy one or two tickets, that still lottery.

As stated a few other posts up - I would entertain the idea of having maybe 4-5 winners and providing 75%-80% to the winners with 25%-20% going to the charity.

I will be taking zero percentage - some may find that hard to believe but having lost 2 family members to COVID and at least 6 family members to various forms of cancer, I already make personal donations to several agencies. This idea was spurred when I read about an unnamed early bitcoiner that made a fortune and decided to give vast quantities to various charities - while I do not have vast amounts of Bitcoin to do that with, I would like to see the crypto community do something similar - now if I need to offer a prize, so be it I cannot fault that at all.

I will be looking to do this start of September.

I think your idea can work in the name of donations, and perhaps, you can use at least 7 names of charities, and we can select what we want. And the winner will be select for 3-5 winners.

[Mauser]

I do not need escrow (I provide escrow on these forums) I also do not need someone to manage it (I will) and there is no fee for myself - the goal is to raise funds for a charity not myself.

I was thinking to let people pick their own numbers - I do see your point in that some may not participate if they do not get their number - so that would be an issue as well if the numbers were randomly assigned as well.

I am sorry, I thought you were looking for someone to run this for you.

To give a part of the winnings to charity sounds like a good idea. I think there should be plenty of people here on this forum to be interested in such a gamble.

Maybe just start to run it on a monthly basis and see how it goes. Advertisement shouldn't be a problem here.