I got scammed at an event!

[ADisneyQueen]

My kids were part of a community event where every participant had to pay a fee and sell/ buy 15 $1 raffle tickets. When it was time for the drawing, an older gentlemen announced that the prize was $650, the other $650 would go to the event expenses. They pulled the winning ticket out of a jar about the size of a large juice bottle of juice if it did not have a narrow top- the jar was halfway filled with tickets! there is no way there were 1300 tickets in that! Many of us sent our raffle tickets in through the mail, since they had to be sold by a certain date. I think those tickets were never brought to the event. The ones in the jar must have been the ones they sold that day. What a scam!

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Generally when you are paying a fee to belong to a community event, it is pretty much a scam already.

What was the event? Was it a charity thing?

 

[golfgal]

In our state you have to have a license to hold a raffle-if that is the case in your state, there is a commission where you can report this.

 

[happily single]

I agree it sounds like a scam. Was the price amount announced on the ticket? Of course if 1,300 tickets were sold I would not anticipate the raffle prize being $1,300, but it should clearly be printed on the ticket.

In RI the State Police is the agency that authorizes raffles and games of chance. I would contact them and inquire.

 

[DrCavin]

Maybe they filled the bottle from ALL the tickets they received & then pulled the winner from the smaller sample. Could have been impossible to bring all the tickets to the final drawing area.

 

[tlbwriter]

I agree it sounds like a scam. Was the price amount announced on the ticket? Of course if 1,300 tickets were sold I would not anticipate the raffle prize being $1,300, but it should clearly be printed on the ticket.

If it was a 50/50 drawing, they wouldn't know the amount of the prize until they stopped selling tickets. With a 50/50 drawing, you simply sell as many tickets as you can - the winner gets half, and the organization gets half. I've been in an organization that did this as a fundraiser and it worked really well. But yes, the OP's drawing sounds really odd.

 

[robinb]

My kids were part of a community event where every participant had to pay a fee and sell/ buy 15 $1 raffle tickets. When it was time for the drawing, an older gentlemen announced that the prize was $650, the other $650 would go to the event expenses. They pulled the winning ticket out of a jar about the size of a large juice bottle of juice if it did not have a narrow top- the jar was halfway filled with tickets! there is no way there were 1300 tickets in that! Many of us sent our raffle tickets in through the mail, since they had to be sold by a certain date. I think those tickets were never brought to the event. The ones in the jar must have been the ones they sold that day. What a scam!

I know that when I was forced to sell raffle tickets for my DD's swim team I had to pay for the tickets in advance and then resell them and hand in the stubs. Perhaps people paid for the tickets and didn't turn in the stubs because they didn't sell them.

 

[tlbwriter]

I know that when I was forced to sell raffle tickets for my DD's swim team I had to pay for the tickets in advance and then resell them and hand in the stubs. Perhaps people paid for the tickets and didn't turn in the stubs because they didn't sell them.

But if they paid for the tickets, couldn't they turn them in on their own behalf? As long as the ticket is sold, why does it matter if it's sold to a person on the fundraising team? It should still count.

 

[robinb]

But if they paid for the tickets, couldn't they turn them in on their own behalf? As long as the ticket is sold, why does it matter if it's sold to a person on the fundraising team? It should still count.

Of course it should count, but maybe the people never turned in the stubs .

 

[ADisneyQueen]

Yes, it was a 50/50.
It's true that some people may have not turned in the money, but I can't believe that many would have forgotten.

 

[kirbsam]

if you have a problem with it, talk to the people that organized it. otherwise, why let it bother you.

 

[kirbsam]

if you want to know what they did, here it is. if everybody bought 15 tickets and every ticket was from a long line of tickets. they most likely placed 1 ticket from everybodys roll of 15 in the jar. saving space and not affecting the outcome of the event. so you and everybody else had the same chance of winning as if all 15 of your tickets were in there. glad i could be of help.

 

[tlbwriter]

if you want to know what they did, here it is. if everybody bought 15 tickets and every ticket was from a long line of tickets. they most likely placed 1 ticket from everybodys roll of 15 in the jar. saving space and not affecting the outcome of the event. so you and everybody else had the same chance of winning as if all 15 of your tickets were in there. glad i could be of help.

The odds of every single person buying the same number tickets are very unlikely, unless that was the only way they were sold.

 

[surfgirl]

if you want to know what they did, here it is. if everybody bought 15 tickets and every ticket was from a long line of tickets. they most likely placed 1 ticket from everybodys roll of 15 in the jar. saving space and not affecting the outcome of the event. so you and everybody else had the same chance of winning as if all 15 of your tickets were in there. glad i could be of help.

actually this does affect the odds... does that mean that everyone who walked up bought 15 tickets ? If not, their $1 is equal (in odds) to your $15 worth of tickets (one ticket each).

 

[bettymae1121]

Could it be that some of the prize money was donated, and they didn't need to sell 1300 raffle tickets to have a $1300 prize?

 

[ADisneyQueen]

OP Here- everyone had to buy/sell 15 tickets, each $1 ticket had a space to write your name and phone number on it. I chose to buy all 15 and wrote my name on each, but many people sold a few to neighbors, friends, and family to total 15 so each ticket would have had a separate name and phone number on it. From talking to other people, I was in the minority that I did not sell my individual tickets to others. I guess I was tired of fundraising and my family is probably tired of buying stuff from us.

 

[luvmy3]

Yes, it was a 50/50.
It's true that some people may have not turned in the money, but I can't believe that many would have forgotten.

OP, if you personally didn't count the tickets then you really have no idea exactly how many were in the jar, or how many were missing?
Your title says you were scammed but you really don't have any proof, at this point you think you were. If you have an issue, call whoever is in charge and voice your concerns.

 

[ADisneyQueen]

There is just no way there were even 1000 tickets in that jar! Even if some people forgot to bring them in, there would have still been more. I would say there were only a few hundred, having done raffles before with the exact same size tickets.

The event was run really poorly, I won't go into detail, but everyone around me thought so. It doesn't surprise me in the least that not all the tickets were not in the jar. I just thought it was an interesting story to tell on the boards.

 

[luvmy3]

There is just no way there were even 1000 tickets in that jar! Even if some people forgot to bring them in, there would have still been more. I would say there were only a few hundred, having done raffles before with the exact same size tickets.

The event was run really poorly, I won't go into detail, but everyone around me thought so. It doesn't surprise me in the least that not all the tickets were not in the jar. I just thought it was an interesting story to tell on the boards.

If you were my dh you would find the exact same bottle, get the total volume and then using the dimensions of the ticket, calculate how many could fit in the entire bottle and then be able to figure out how many would fit in half. Sadly, I'm not kidding

Seriously, if you believe you were scammed, and along with you everyone else that bought those tickets, I would call and ask them.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

If there was a requirement to buy 15 tickets (at least) this means that they would have needed 87 people to get $1,300 in ticket sales. Do you know how many people (families) were involved?