Overview
There are a number of activities your location may engage in that qualify as raffles. These can be great ways to engage your current customers or spread the word about your business.
Each state and province has different rules and regulations governing raffles, but there are some universal guidelines that should be followed.
Details
Here are some examples and recommendations:
Collecting business cards in a fishbowl
Inviting customers to place their business cards in a fishbowl with the chance of winning a prize is allowed as long as no purchase is required.
Answer the trivia question
Creating a game for customers to answer a trivia question of the day is acceptable as long as it is fair (first person wins or all those who answer correctly win) and no purchase is required.
Guess the number of items in the jar
You can create a contest for customers to win a prize by guessing the number of beans in a jar as long as no purchase is necessary and the rules are fair and clearly communicated.
Gift Raffle
Selling raffle tickets (or hosting a silent auction) in the store to benefit a charity, when the prize is a gift from your business, is not recommended unless everything is conducted solely by the charity.
Allowing charities to sell raffle tickets outside your business
Your business simply provides a space with access to customers and the charity assumes liability and responsibility for the raffle.
Donating a prize for a charity’s raffle
It is OK to donate a prize that will be raffled off by a charity. Requests of this type should be considered like any other donation request.
