Online Charity Lottery vs. Online Charity Raffles vs. Gambling: What’s the Difference?

What’s the Difference?

Thanks to lockdown restrictions, online charitable gaming platforms and the non-profits they serve have been going through their very own Gold Rush. They’ve been using attractive graphics and user-friendly interfaces to get people to play the lottery, or have they?

 

You might be surprised to know that lotteries aren’t the same as raffles or gambling. Let us explain.

Beyond Lottery: Defining the Lottery, Raffles, and Gambling

While playing rules vary all over the world, UK’s Gambling Commission requires all online gaming platforms to acquire a license before starting fundraising efforts through ‘gambling’, which the committee equates to the lottery and raffles.

 

The reality, however, is hardly that simple.

 

1.      Online Charity Lottery

When you play the lottery online, you’re usually contributing to the total tickets sales. If your chosen numbers end up being the lucky winners, you’re entitled to receive a pre-determined portion of these sales.

 

However, the charity gaming site also dedicates another portion of these sales to supported charities.

 

2.      Charity Raffles

Charity raffles may last anywhere from a single day to several weeks or months. The longer they run the more funds the site can raise for charity. As with the lottery, people get to buy digital tickets. However, the lucky combinations are pre-generated for them.

 

Unlike the lottery, only the generated ticket combinations are entered into the raffle, thereby increasing a player or several players’ chances of winning a portion of the winnings.

 

3.      Gambling

There are higher stakes involved in gambling as compared to the lottery and raffles. Although luck plays a role here, you could also do with some experience and knowledge in the game you choose to play.

 

Unlike its counterpart, gambling doesn’t involve putting in small amounts of money through ticket-buying but larger sums of money in mutual bets.

 

An Uncut Roll of Raffle Tickets Resting on a Green Surface

Beyond Perceptions: Unblurring Boundaries

Even though these three money-betting fundraisers are often used interchangeably, you can tell them apart by the following parameters.

 

·        Target Audience

The target audience for the lottery and raffles have vastly different motivations than the target audience for gambling. While the former may want to make money online without betting too much of their own capital, the latter is almost entirely committed to either losing or winning it all.

 

·        Location Limitations

Lotteries and raffles are usually limited to a particular neighbourhood, town, or city, whereas gambling might be more of an international affair between countries that share gambling policies.

 

·        Betting Stakes

The tickets of an online charity lottery cost the same across the board, but offer the lowest odds of winning.

 

Online charity raffles offer only those tickets that are meant to enter the draw. However, there may also be a hierarchy to ticket prices, with the most expensive ones offering a higher chance of securing a win.

 

Charity gambling involves losing or winning massive amounts of money. The participants get to decide how high they want their stakes to be, and the revenue from their losses is partially donated to charities.

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Contact our gaming charity for queries and concerns.