Dream Islands lottery (win up to 20BTC jackpot)

[film2240]

Hi,
I'm launching a lottery.I plan to make this a good,fun and fair game for everyone.Since I'm new to this I'll be open to feedback before I relaunch this officially.You are all welcome to suggest,praise,critique as you please but no trolling please as I'm very new to launching and running these games.

It's all here: http://film2240.webs.com/dreamislandslottery.htm
All intents and info is fully transparent. It's a simple pay for a lotto ticket to enter like in other games now.

I'm looking forward to hearing feedback and working with you all to make this a great lottery.Thanks. :-)

You can enter by entering here as well now: 1Dd8ZWThgFW97toK7kvrbVLpiNBQPTaheJ

Edit:added an easy payment button so you don't need to ask me or go through me anymore which should speed up the entry process and people can now enter even when I'm offline.

My lottery website has now undergone some updates containing the easier to use payment method as well as more up to date information.Expenses have now been reduced by a fair margin so for the first time,there may be a little bonus from the reduced expenses added to the jackpot.You'll find out how much when the winners have been picked at the end of the round.

Please test this button and see if it works for me as I'm new to using bit-pay.com.It'll ask for an email but don't worry it'll just send you a recipt. Only thing to do is once you get a recipt,Just PM me so I can give you a ticket no along with your forum name so I know it's you.

[marked]

This will be a lottery where each entry costs 0.05 BTC for the jackpot of 20 BTC (500 entries available) on this first round. This lottery is different in 3 ways:

a.Each person can make multiple entries (up to 10 max per person,anymore than this and they will be ignored from 1 person to keep things fair) to increase their chance of winning (It's still randomly decided,it's just that multiple entries will increase the chance of winning if you are chosen)

You've really no way of enforcing this beyond not accepting more than 10 entries with the same sending address. The coderr anonymity extensions to the mainline client, and I believe armory both allow you to set the sending address to be used. The mainstream bitcoin client can also do it at the command line but it is a bit of a pain.

marked

[film2240]

This will be a lottery where each entry costs 0.05 BTC for the jackpot of 20 BTC (500 entries available) on this first round. This lottery is different in 3 ways:

a.Each person can make multiple entries (up to 10 max per person,anymore than this and they will be ignored from 1 person to keep things fair) to increase their chance of winning (It's still randomly decided,it's just that multiple entries will increase the chance of winning if you are chosen)

You've really no way of enforcing this beyond not accepting more than 10 entries with the same sending address. The coderr anonymity extensions to the mainline client, and I believe armory both allow you to set the sending address to be used. The mainstream bitcoin client can also do it at the command line but it is a bit of a pain.

marked

Since there is no technical way I know of for enforcing this rule,I'll simply have to ignore more than 10 entries from the same address as that's easier or even yet abolish the rule (but if I do that it won't be fair to people at all so I have to set a cap). Thanks for your feedback marked. Should I abolish the rule or keep it?

Edit:On second thought,Since I see no easy way of keeping an eye on which addresses have entered,It'd be a lot easier and fairer (on me and everyone by not tracking BTC addreses at all) if I abolished that rule. I now see no need for this rule so it'll be removed.This should mean a more fun lottery.It's completely random now

[film2240]

All feedback up to this point 18-3-2012 (18th march 2012) has been considered.I'm happy to announce that the games are now officially open 
There's still some time left for all of those interested in entering the lottery.So far 1 person has entered.There's plenty of room for everyone to join :-)

[gorgo1]

I've made an entry into the Dream Islands lottery. 0.05 Bitcoins an entry. I hope I win this. (C'mon big money.)

[film2240]

Thanks for entering gorgo1.Good luck by the way for the lottery everyone.

There is still time to enter so please join in if you can.

Thanks

[Skrivitor]

There is still time to enter so please join in if you can.

Did a new round start?  I thought the last lottery ended on March 19th?

[film2240]

There is still time to enter so please join in if you can.

Did a new round start?  I thought the last lottery ended on March 19th?

I apologise for the confusion guys.The lottery that originally started from the 5th March was meant to end on 19/3/2012.Since I failed to update the info on the site about the change of deadline. As a gesture of good will,I've extended the deadline until all entries are recieved.From now on,rounds will be annouced on here and not on the site,that way there can be no confusion about the rounds.Since the round was extended,the BTC to enter will stay the same until a new round starts. All entries recieved so far will still count (so no need to re-enter). Good luck for everyone in the lottery guys.

This is still round 1 guys.I like to give a chance for everyone to enter so that it's a fair game for all (even if it means extending the current round) :-)

I hope this clears things up. In future I'll try to be more forthcoming of any changes (proposed or otherwise) and be more careful not to cause confusion.
Have a good day (and night) guys

[gorgo1]

It's all gd 2 know film2240.thanx.

[film2240]

Things are looking quiet in this thread. Why not spread the word to everyone so they all have the chance to enter the lottery. Keep things going and keep it fun for everyone. Make the most of this extended round. I'm open to feedback again so if you have any suggestions,please post them here so I can make changes work better (bear in mind I can't code anything so it'll have to be general or anythnig else that isn't coding based at all).No trolls please.

[film2240]

Update: The original post has now been clarified and simplified. The games are still open so enter while you can.The round is still open so please encourage other people you know to enter the lottery here: 1Dd8ZWThgFW97toK7kvrbVLpiNBQPTaheJ and spread the word as well.

The jackpot is (up to) 20BTC for the winner so enter now.

Thanks.

[bitlotto]

How do you guarantee it is a random draw?
How do you pay the winner? I see no mention of how you manage who's ticket is who's.

[guruvan]

How do you guarantee it is a random draw?
How do you pay the winner? I see no mention of how you manage who's ticket is who's.

+1 I'd like to play, but more specified rules would be great

bitlotto's rules are very clear. It would be excellent to have two competing games that work well and attract attention.

[film2240]

Good questions bitlotto and guruvan. let me assure that since I reformed some of the earlier rules to clarify this and to improve the fairness aspect. However since there is a greater need for transparency than I anticipated,I'll make the following changes:
1.Every person who enters the draw (PM me after sending payment to get a ticket no) will be given a ticket no.
All the entries I've recieved will have a ticket number. All people who've entered so far will recieve a ticket no via PM.
2.The random selection will now be based on the ticket numbers handed out rather than the previous method of BTC addresses (which by the way are very hard to trace in the stock client and not worth the trouble)

Id love to see how bitlotto works.
Do bear in mind that I can't code anything so I'll literally have to keep a list somewhere of ticket numbers and entries but it'll still work.

Who's entered so far:
1.TheLastDovah ticket number S000
2.gorgo1 ticket number S001
3.squall1066 ticket numbers S002 and S003 (as he bought 2 tickets).Note while buying multiple tickets may (or may not) increase your chances of winning,this will only work if you are chosen by the random generator so it's still a game of chance like for everyone else.
4.kidder2012 ticket number S004

I've only mentioned people to show that they've got ticket numbers now and that their entries are still valid to reflect the changes above. I'll add some new entries to this post from now on (trasparency and the copy of this is also stored on my laptop in case the info is lost here).

I hope this helps with your suggestion guys.I've listened and I've delivered.Keep up the good work guys on making these games even better

[bitlotto]

Your still missing how you are picking the winner and how you will make sure it's fair. How will people know you are picking a random person?
You also say to send BTC to one address. How do you keep track of who paid and where to pay the winnings to? For example say someone pays 0.05 to the address. You then get two people saying they bought tickets. It will be hard to know who is honest. You could have people saying they bought a ticket but didn't.

[film2240]

Your still missing how you are picking the winner and how you will make sure it's fair. How will people know you are picking a random person?
You also say to send BTC to one address. How do you keep track of who paid and where to pay the winnings to? For example say someone pays 0.05 to the address. You then get two people saying they bought tickets. It will be hard to know who is honest. You could have people saying they bought a ticket but didn't.

Ok,I hope this will address the remaining points so far:
1.I thought I addressed this but oh well.Anyway since the ticket numbers start from 000 to 500 in this round, I plan to try out a random number generator that will pick any number between 000 and 500.This will help me address the issue without having to worry about coding anything as there are plenty of premade random number generators available to choose from.Set the range and off you go.

2.How will people know I'm picking a random person? Well thats a good question. I will post an entry on the site (and on here) when the current (first) round has finished so that people will know not to make any further entries after the deadline. What will then happen is some sort of feedback system shall be put in place telling people that a random winner is being selected. Then the winner will be announced on here and recieve a PM from me so that they can claim the money.

3.I do say to send BTC to one address.I say that so it's easier for me to manage.The way for me to know is for people to PM me after entering so they can recieve a ticket number.It's all pretty clear I feel.You are encouraged to PM me anyway to get a ticket number plus to confirm your entry into the lottery. When a winner is picked and announced,they will recieve a PM from me asking them where to send the winnings. This is all manual I know but it will work.

4.In the case of doubt if 2 people claiming to have bought tickets on here.Here's how I'll have to handle it.If the 1st person PMs me with all necessary info and I see the transaction in the client,then he gets a ticket number (but in most cases they'll get a ticket number before a 1 confirm because most people are fairly honest but not fully).If the 2nd person then says they enter but I see no transaction of any kind and doesn't PM me with the info,then that entry would have to be ignored. If the situation is unusual in anyway,I'll take a closer look at it first before accepting or declining the entry in question.

I think it's time to concede that I do need a volunteer programmer (I can't pay them at this point though) to code a site (a single page will do) that can accept payments without me having to handle things manually and give auto feedback to the entrant like their ticket number. This is my first time in running any sort of lottery before so I'll be trying my best to make this work.

[film2240]

I'm planning to make the first (current) round end around 1st June this year as things have been running for long enough. There is still time so please enter now if interested. Who knows that jackpot winner could be you 

[film2240]

We have less than a month to go now.This round will end on 1/6/2012.The winner will win however much is in the pot at the time.This means that the winner may get less than 20BTC (hence it ways win up to 20BTC).If the pot is less than 5BTC,I'll top it up by a few BTC to make it worthwhile for the people who entered (I can only add 2BTC max from the reserve in cases like this though.The reserve is from my own pocket.This is not an entry as staff of the lottery like myself are not allowed to enter any lotteries they run to help keep things fair.).

New feature.I'll now update the thread with what's in the jackpot so far so as to help people see what their prize will be.Bitlotto shows the current jackpot so far.Since I like the idea,I'll add it to this now so credit goes to bitlotto and it's admin. Current jackpot is 0.25BTC  If you want to boost this,encourage more people to enter.

Please encourage as many people as possible to enter so we can have a great fun lottery for all.Tweet this,share via facebook,google + and everything else you have and invite all bitcoiners to enter the lottery.Thank you.

Edit:added jackpot total so far.

[randomproof]

I guess I will be the one to ask, but what are the advantages to your lottery over BitLotto?  I think that if you can cleary explain that you may get more interest.

[film2240]

I guess I will be the one to ask, but what are the advantages to your lottery over BitLotto?  I think that if you can cleary explain that you may get more interest.

Advantages:
1.No need to signup to anything or register an account.I'm not sure how bitlotto works on this point.
2.At the moment as it's run by just me at the moment (1 man setup), I can help people resolve things in an effective way (in the best way that I can anyway).Once this expands things will run a lot smoother and better :-)
3.Things are always adapting to user feedback and things overall are improving.Once I can get assistance for random selection process things will be a lot better. For now I have to make do with this random number generator: http://www.random.org/. It lets me ensure that random numbers are generated in a way that it chooses from all the lottery tickets bought,instead of say picking no1000 when only 500 lottery tickets were bought so that issue is addressed.The range will be set to how many tickets were actually bought (if less than 500) to keep things fair for all of those who entered.Yes unscrupulious admins may cheat the system but I've shown myself to be honest on here so I will continue to demonstrate this by issuing screen grabs to ensure that things stay fair/transparent.
4.The cost per entry is much lower than bitlotto as it says :"Send any amount as long as it is a multiple of 0.25 BTC to the Bitcoin address listed for the draw. (Double Check) Each draw has a different address for sending payments. Each ticket is 0.25 BTC."
5.My lottery is much simpler and more transparent than bitlotto as every entrant is listed in this post along with their ticket number so everyone who has questions to ask can simply say:'ah,I'll just look at the list of entries" instead of being left in suspense as to who entered and who won.
6.This is meant to appeal to some people outside the BTC world by not using ridiculously complex things that use the blockchain to 'pick numbers'.Someone please link me to the thread that explains this stuff so I can learn about it.
7.The simpler things are,the more transparent they are like I'm aiming for with this.
8.There will be a greater diversity of games.This was built into the beginning of this where each round is different in someway like costs of entries,diverse jackpots and diverse styles of the games so no game will be boring and stale.
9.The games are run in a democratic way where every user feedback is considered and taken into account.I'll also respond to users as well in a way that fully automated game admins don't always respond to.
10.I accept that a automated app is needed for auto issuing of ticket numbers and payment processsing but other than that I'll oversee the games to make sure things run smoothly.If needed I'll hire some help to make sure things stay smooth,fair and transparent and above all fun/interesting in some way.

I hope this addresses your points randomproof.