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Amarillo

Amarillo

Tom
Super Poster
VIP Member
Messages
10,094
Location
Royal Borough of Greenwich
Vehicle
T6 Beach 150
Aspire Competitions Limited


raffle off campervans weekly.

In a recent competition they flogged 14,000 tickets at £6 each (£84,000) for a six year old converted T6 with 70,000 miles.

Is this some sort of scam?
 
Aspire Competitions Limited


raffle off campervans weekly.

In a recent competition they flogged 14,000 tickets at £6 each (£84,000) for a six year old converted T6 with 70,000 miles.

Is this some sort of scam?
Not a scam, just business
 
Well I thought as much My sister won a £7k hot tub earlier in the year. so I have to say that it actually happens.
 
Well I thought as much My sister won a £7k hot tub earlier in the year. so I have to say that it actually happens.
I'm sure people do win, it's just a big money maker, no different to the lottery really
 
Exactly no harm in it. Great business too.
 
I'm sure people do win, it's just a big money maker, no different to the lottery really

The chances of winning the van I outlined is 1 in 14,000

For the same £6 stake you could go to the bookies, place your wager on a random horse, then, if you win, wager your winning on another until you reach £30,000. Then go to your local campervan dealer and buy a similar spec van. Your odds drop from 1:14,000 to about 1:5000.

It is the sheer profit being made by the company owner which makes me feel that the punters are being scammed.

At the age of 8 I won a bottle of Krug from a 10p stake by drawing the number 1000 in the church tombola. But there all profits went to Christian Aid or something similar. Here the profits are going into the back pocket of what must be a very wealthy man.

And what’s to stop him from selling a winning ticket for, say, £20,000 to boost his profits?
 
The chances of winning the van I outlined is 1 in 14,000

For the same £6 stake you could go to the bookies, place your wager on a random horse, then, if you win, wager your winning on another until you reach £30,000. Then go to your local campervan dealer and buy a similar spec van. Your odds drop from 1:14,000 to about 1:5000.

It is the sheer profit being made by the company owner which makes me feel that the punters are being scammed.

At the age of 8 I won a bottle of Krug from a 10p stake by drawing the number 1000 in the church tombola. But there all profits went to Christian Aid or something similar. Here the profits are going into the back pocket of what must be a very wealthy man.

And what’s to stop him from selling a winning ticket for, say, £20,000 to boost his profits?
I know what you mean, it's the unfairness that comes through, but still, no scam.

"The lottery is a tax on those who can't do maths" comes to mind.

Add some meaningless divert info like "A winner every week!" and the punters come rolling up. Same as casinos showing the last winning roulette numbers (Gambler's fallacy), nothing to do with your chances of winning.

At some airports when there's an Aston Martin or similar impressive car, 20 quid a ticket, even though I know the odds, I'm still tempting to play! But thankfully, I'm too tight :)
 
Was chatting to a lad at work about campers and he mentions his mate won one in one of these competitions and proceeds to show me his Facebook page with all the pics of it on.

It was, as the OP says, a used van that had been converted (badly from what I could see in the pics), but he paid a couple of quid for the ticket because of some offer or other, so he was happy. Strangely, almost exactly a year before, he'd won an "RS" Ford Focus, again used and again, from the pics I saw, badly converted with an awful body kit on. Same company ran both competitions (The Car Competition).

So people do win the prizes but there are an awful lot where they don't - some prize draws never get that far, particularly where the prize is a very expensive car or even a house, as they don't sell enough tickets. They end up refunding the ticket money or offering much much lower value prizes as they can't cover the cost of the original one. I think many just continually run and run - I keep seeing the same advert for a VW California raffle on Facebook that says "must be won this week", and has done for nearly 3 months. Same with that dream house advert on TV - it's like the DFS sale, always finishing on Sunday....
 

What that report doesn’t say is how much money went to Great Ormond Street Hospital and how much went into the pocket of the $5 millionaire American owner of Omaze, Matthew Pohlson.


 
Many moons ago, my Grandmother was in hospital and they were promoting the football pools, so she had a go..... she won on her one and only entry !! Allowed then to buy the farm they were working, send my mother to uni ...... and the rest is history.

The real irony on this one was that she never paid for her ticket because it was a promotion in the hospital.
 
Was chatting to a lad at work about campers and he mentions his mate won one in one of these competitions and proceeds to show me his Facebook page with all the pics of it on.

It was, as the OP says, a used van that had been converted (badly from what I could see in the pics), but he paid a couple of quid for the ticket because of some offer or other, so he was happy. Strangely, almost exactly a year before, he'd won an "RS" Ford Focus, again used and again, from the pics I saw, badly converted with an awful body kit on. Same company ran both competitions (The Car Competition).

So people do win the prizes but there are an awful lot where they don't - some prize draws never get that far, particularly where the prize is a very expensive car or even a house, as they don't sell enough tickets. They end up refunding the ticket money or offering much much lower value prizes as they can't cover the cost of the original one. I think many just continually run and run - I keep seeing the same advert for a VW California raffle on Facebook that says "must be won this week", and has done for nearly 3 months. Same with that dream house advert on TV - it's like the DFS sale, always finishing on Sunday....
Also to factor in is the loser's loses. Often winners have played many other games which they lost and don't seem to keep track of. A tenner here, thirty quid worth a bash why not? ... it all adds up.

The house always wins, as they say.
 
Many moons ago, my Grandmother was in hospital and they were promoting the football pools, so she had a go..... she won on her one and only entry !! Allowed then to buy the farm they were working, send my mother to uni ...... and the rest is history.

The real irony on this one was that she never paid for her ticket because it was a promotion in the hospital.
Fantastic!
 
What that report doesn’t say is how much money went to Great Ormond Street Hospital and how much went into the pocket of the $5 millionaire American owner of Omaze, Matthew Pohlson.


I would have thought that you or two-saabs would have investigated that.
Personally, I couldn't care less. If I give to a particular organisation then I give directly not through any 3rd Party, especially a raffle or lottery. I very much doubt if anyone who does is not more interested in the " gamble " element than the " donation " element, but then I suppose every little bit helps and would the player/ticket purchaser have donated anything at all if there hadn't been a gambling element.

No different to the National Lottery - do people by tickets to give a % to good causes or to gamble on a win? If there was no national lottery would they still donate freely to good clauses?
 
I would have thought that you or two-saabs would have investigated that.
Personally, I couldn't care less. If I give to a particular organisation then I give directly not through any 3rd Party, especially a raffle or lottery. I very much doubt if anyone who does is not more interested in the " gamble " element than the " donation " element, but then I suppose every little bit helps and would the player/ticket purchaser have donated anything at all if there hadn't been a gambling element.

No different to the National Lottery - do people by tickets to give a % to good causes or to gamble on a win? If there was no national lottery would they still donate freely to good clauses?

The National Lottery is transparent about where players’ money goes. Indeed, I reckon I could give a pretty good guesstimate from ~30 years ago when it all began: 50% payouts; 40% good causes; 10% admin and Camelot.

I’ve just checked. 53% to payouts; 24% to good causes; 23% admin and Camelot. I was being generous with my guesstimate.

But at least Camelot are transparent. Omaze and Aspire are not.

I’d be happier if big prize raffles had by law to specify their average payouts and how much, in percentage terms, goes to admin and profit. (This would not include village fetes.)
 
The National Lottery is transparent about where players’ money goes. Indeed, I reckon I could give a pretty good guesstimate from ~30 years ago when it all began: 50% payouts; 40% good causes; 10% admin and Camelot.

I’ve just checked. 53% to payouts; 24% to good causes; 23% admin and Camelot. I was being generous with my guesstimate.

But at least Camelot are transparent. Omaze and Aspire are not.

I’d be happier if big prize raffles had by law to specify their average payouts and how much, in percentage terms, goes to admin and profit. (This would not include village fetes.)
Why are you telling me all about this. I'm not interested.
I doubt if many people buy Lottery tickets because 77% goes to good causes.
 
Because you replied to the thread giving the opinion that the Campervan raffle was, in essence, no different to the National Lottery. I explained a difference.

Then ignore.
All I posted was a BBC link to a similar story. No more, no less.
Then we had your moral judgement regarding that particular lottery.
Who cares, the winner was happy. No doubt the charities who lent their names were happy, only you are not happy.
 
The National Lottery is transparent about where players’ money goes. Indeed, I reckon I could give a pretty good guesstimate from ~30 years ago when it all began: 50% payouts; 40% good causes; 10% admin and Camelot.

I’ve just checked. 53% to payouts; 24% to good causes; 23% admin and Camelot. I was being generous with my guesstimate.

But at least Camelot are transparent. Omaze and Aspire are not.

I’d be happier if big prize raffles had by law to specify their average payouts and how much, in percentage terms, goes to admin and profit. (This would not include village fetes.)
I think its about expectations, many businesses don't reveal their profit margins, I think its about making peace with that for what matters to you
 
Because you replied to the thread giving the opinion that the Campervan raffle was, in essence, no different to the National Lottery. I explained a difference.

Then ignore.

It’s too much fun for him to ignore, the Forum equivalent of yelling, “STAY OFF MY LAWN!” at unsuspecting passers by.
 
It’s too much fun for him to ignore, the Forum equivalent of yelling, “STAY OFF MY LAWN!” at unsuspecting passers by.
Haven't got a front lawn. Was wondering when you would appear again.:kiss
 
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