05 Apr UK online lottery rules with regards to a way of selling cars/bikes via a raffle
Just in case anyone wonders why we don’t allow raffles by members wanting to sell their car to other club members by selling lottery bonus ball numbers or similar as a chance to win it.
If we did so, we would be breaking the law and risking having the club itself closed down and removed from FB etc.
Seen quite a few of these “buy a bonus ball number for XX quid to win my car/bike lottery” posts appearing on forums and Facebook lately.
So we just thought we should make a quick mention for any of our members who might be tempted to do so, that if you do, then you are actually breaking the law in the UK.
While in principle it sounds like a good idea, and the lottery number thing seems inherently fair as it cant be fixed, don’t think that means you cant be scammed this way, especially if you are the one actually running the lottery.
As a result of it being technically illegal (the fact a few people have done it and got away with it doesn’t change that sadly), after you have in perfectly good faith handed over your car to the happy winner, dont be surprised if a load of the people who bought tickets all want their money back and you are forced to comply as not doing so can land you with criminal charges I believe if one of those people then goes the legal route with it.
This might be worth a share to any of your car friends, as we would hate to see any of you tempted to raffle your car and then end up the victim of the people entering the lottery all claiming their money back and you have no car and no money at the end of it.
Also there are of course lots of scams the other way around where if you buy a ticket, what the seller does is actually only sell 1/2 the numbers, if the half which he hasn’t really sold wins he just announces the car has gone to its new owner “mr madeupname” and all the people entering think they lost fair and square, however if anyone buying a ticket wins, the seller posts saying “really sorry guys, the car was stolen last night and I cant proceed with the lottery” or some similar excuse and says that he will of course refund all tickets, so you all think its ok as you got your money back, not realising that all you bought really wasn’t a lottery ticket it was a 50/50 no win gamble where you could never win but had a 50% chance of losing your money.
