as he's locked his post, I opened this thread re how the future raffles he proposes (& those by others) could be seen to be more open/fairer, no criticism intended, for me the only way for raffles to be seen to be fair would be if operated like
Bitlotto where your entry is also your ticket, the blockchain winner choosing part is fine, then the publicly seen winner gets the raffle prize plus all BTC that were bet for more than it's value less a predetermined organizer's commission on those or on the total that was bet - say 10% (in Bitlotto's case it's a very reasonable 1% of all funds staked)
this is because as others have already pointed out, if the total bet isn't all or almost the same as that given back in prizes then it costs the organizer nothing to put in fake bets to himself that stack the odds in his favor at no cost to him, if he has to return say 90% of those sock puppet bets then it's far less attractive a temptation & he would need to add bets excessively to have a good chance not to lose which would be fairly obvious to those participating
feedback on how this could be made more watertight appreciated, also should raffles best go in the Marketplace or in Gambling?
either way, congrats to the BFL Single winner (please post here when you've received it) & I'm looking forward to the next one ~ like a $15k mini rig maybe
