NR - Raffles (legal)

Burke McCrory burkemc2 at home.com
Thu Feb 15 20:53:27 PST 2001


I am posting the following at Kingdom Seneschal Master Richard Fairbourne's 
request:


After consulting with the Oklahoma AG's office and the legal staff at my 
work place (the Oklahoma Tax Commission), I present the following 
information.  Oklahoma Law bans lotteries as a form of gambling.  To be 
classified as gambling any lottery (raffle, etc.)  in question must meet 
all three of the following criteria.  First - something must be purchased, 
second - there must be the expectation of receiving something, and third - 
there must be an element of chance.

The commonly use donation-drawing seeks to prevent meeting all three of the 
criteria by avoiding the first test.  If you do not purchase a ticket but 
are given it in the form of a numbered receipt for a donation you fail the 
first test.  This is the most commonly used method in Oklahoma and is 
accepted by almost everyone as sufficient.  Some people have questioned if 
this common practice is enough to avoid possible prosecution by the modern 
authorities (something I was assured today hasn't happened in decades).  So 
to avoid any concern Master Richard has proposed that we give everyone who 
receives a ticket a prise.  I checked on this idea and it will indeed be 
more than sufficient to cause our drawing to fail the third test.  There is 
no chance involved if every ticket receives a prise  (value of the prise is 
not a consideration I was told).  I was told today that we really didn't 
need to do this, but that if this were brought before almost any 
jurisdiction in Oklahoma, it would be viewed as failing two of the three 
tests.  Hopefully this will answer the questions that have been raised and 
we can get back to making NRT a great event this year.


Sir Burke Kyriell MacDonald, op
Deputy Kingdom Seneschal
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