Purchase & Sale Is this considered to be gambling?

[AROD2102]

Let's assume I have a pizza business and I advertise that 1 person will get $1 per every customer I had that year. So for example, if I had 100,000 customers in the 2013 year, on January 1, 2014 I will at random pick 1 person to give a "Thank you gift" of $100,000 for being a customer. Maybe also add 1,000 people get $1,000 and 500 people get $500.

Now, is that by law considered to be gambling? Gambling based off a simple internet research needs three elements, (consideration, chance, and prize) so when you look at what I want to do, I feel like maybe it qualifies but at the same time think it is not considered to be gambling. Any help with this?


Thank in advance!

 

[army judge]

Let's assume I have a pizza business and I advertise that 1 person will get $1 per every customer I had that year. So for example, if I had 100,000 customers in the 2013 year, on January 1, 2014 I will at random pick 1 person to give a "Thank you gift" of $100,000 for being a customer. Maybe also add 1,000 people get $1,000 and 500 people get $500.

Now, is that by law considered to be gambling? Gambling based off a simple internet research needs three elements, (consideration, chance, and prize) so when you look at what I want to do, I feel like maybe it qualifies but at the same time think it is not considered to be gambling. Any help with this?


Thank in advance!

First of all, if it is gambling, federal law doesn't care.

The right to regulate gambling is exercised under the tenth amendment ("The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.") of our constitution.

So, you need to run your idea by a lawyer in the county of the state where you plan to operate.

You might also wish to discuss the idea with the state's attorney general.

If your business is national, then you might need to do this for every state in which you operate.

What you've proposed is a raffle, sans the fee requirement.

But, you're creating an accounting challenge, and drawing challenge too.

In most cases that I've seen regarding this topic, it never got beyond the discussion stage.

Good luck...