Would you enter an online lottery for charity?

[Andrew2010]

Hi, just a curious question.

My friend is setting up a website similar to the lottery. You buy a ticket and each week the numbers get drawn. All the proceeds will go to a worth cause. He will also be running a website alongside that to document what the proceeds are going to with pictures, clips, interviews etc.

Basically you buy a ticket, at the end of the week there is a draw, the winner gets half the takings, the other half goes to a worthy cause, it maybe a differnt cause each week.

Please let me know what you think?

I have posted this in here as it is not a business, he already runs a successful business. He is wanting to do this as his dad has recently died from an illness and he wants to do something like this to help raise money for charities.

There will also be fun things on the site such as games etc.

[MinuWeb]

firstly there are quite strict regulations to running a lottery.

secondly, seems quite odd that you are posting looking for ideas to make a quick buck, and you have a "friend" setting up a lottery and another "friend" setting up a shopping site.

I would suggest that you stop looking to get rich quick, by the time you found a scam that works you could have legally earnt a million, also you should ombine all your alter ego's into one, then they could all work together to give you an idea for a legimate business.

[Whistle Ink]

yeah get your 'friend' to join! :D

[Andrew2010]

No, really.

I have been in other forums etc and have friends that also try and make money. These are ideas i have picked up that i found quite interesting.

I would say if it was my idea.

[Jayne]

Hi,

What job do you do at the moment?

May give us some ideas for a business idea for you.

Jayne :D

[Andrew2010]

Assistant manager of the sports department at Center Parcs.

[Jayne]

Assistant manager of the sports department at Center Parcs.

Activity holiday organiser :idea:

Organise fun short breaks for things like stag nights or sport type holidays. There must be a big market for that sort of thing. Use what you have learned working there and expand on the idea.

Will take a lot of research.


Jayne :D

[Andrew2010]

Thats a very good idea.

I never really thought of anything like that. But the travel and tourism industry is good, and so is sport and leisure.

Thanks Jayne. You really are a star on this forum!

[Jayne]

Thanks Andrew :D

You wouldn't need stock with this sort of biz, you could keep all different businesses on you books..eg, paint balling and you organise everything from Taxis to the best Pub crawl and they pay you to do it.

I quite like this idea myself :lol:

Jayne

[Andrew2010]

Yeh this is a great idea. I mean as the assistant manager i have to try and come up with ideas like this anyway, (maybe not the pub crawl - family resort) :lol: but along these lines. Although the pub crawl does take my fancy :lol:

With the right research this could develop into a really good idea!

Thanks again Jayne.

Any ideas on expanding on this would be great.

[mattk]

I'd enter a lottery where none of the money went to charity.

[mattk]

Assistant manager of the sports department at Center Parcs.

Activity holiday organiser :idea:

Organise fun short breaks for things like stag nights or sport type holidays. There must be a big market for that sort of thing. Use what you have learned working there and expand on the idea.

Will take a lot of research.


Jayne :D

There are tonnes of companies offering the usual stag do's - karting, paintball, Yates, stripclubs etc. Why not look at something a little more upper-class. Have a look at this site:

http://www.redlippy.com

but for men.

[Jayne]

I'll have a think of an edge to this idea, i'll get back to you when my brain kicks in, been up since 4am and am a little tired :D

Jayne

[Jayne]

Matt,

My idea will be classy, i'm helping him don't forget :lol:

It doesn't have to be just Stag nights, that was just an example, he could do family rafting hols, couples golf weekends, gentle walking hols for the older end of the market..the sky is his limit :D

Jayne

[Andrew2010]

Thanks these ideas are great! Keep them comin!

I have just started looking into it and there are loads out there. There will be a gap in the market somewhere.

At the start i would have to keep my job untill it started making some real money. I could use center Parcs somehow maybe. Use my contacts to get a discount with all activities included maybe? They dont offer that at the mo as to my knowledge. Not with activities already included, these are extra.

[Jayne]

Good luck with it Andrew, if i've time later i'll do a bit of noseying on the web :D

I'm sure everyone else will add there comments too :D

Jayne

[mattk]

I'll give you a scenario:

I went with 3 mates to Amsterdam a while back. We basically got stoned and wondered round the red light district.

What we needed was a tailor-made guide to the city - this is where you come in!

What are the best bars? The cool coffeeshops (not the f-ing Bulldog)? The clubs that play real Dutch trance? What shops would a bunch of guys actually enjoying looking around? What other activities are there to do in a city you've never been to before?

This is kind of like the info-product idea that someone else came up with, but it's related to what you know.

[Jayne]

Blackpool is popular for Stag and Hen nights.

The advantage you have with your research is the UKBF, people off here live all over the country and have travelled all over the world, so you have insider information :lol:

Jayne

[clairemackaness]

This is a good idea, but I also like your friends charity lottery idea. I'd pay 50p-£1 a week for it as long as it was legit and was officially backed by the charity.

[Andrew2010]

Yeh, although some people think it was my idea and i have made my 'friend' up, i think it was a good idea. Not all the money would go to the charities. He said 50% to charities, So much paid out in winnings and then so much for himself. All this depends on how popular it was with everyone. I mean he is keen to do this and would be spending alot of time on it, eg. after the first month he will be documenting which charity the money went to, who won the prizes, what the winners thought of their prize, how the money was spent with the charities, mini clips etc. Alot of work.

I have had mixed reaction about this idea, will be telling him the good and the bad points, thanks alot.

[clairemackaness]

The only way he will suceed and make people realise it is not a scam is to start up with full support from the charities in advance of doing any advertising. He needs an official site, with official links to charity pages and documentation from those charities supporting his idea.

[mattk]

Yeh, although some people think it was my idea and i have made my 'friend' up, i think it was a good idea. Not all the money would go to the charities. He said 50% to charities, So much paid out in winnings and then so much for himself. All this depends on how popular it was with everyone. I mean he is keen to do this and would be spending alot of time on it, eg. after the first month he will be documenting which charity the money went to, who won the prizes, what the winners thought of their prize, how the money was spent with the charities, mini clips etc. Alot of work.
How does this differ from the National Lottery though?

[clairemackaness]

I guess it can be more charity specific. After all you dont know where your money goes with the National Lottery as it's so far flung, but with this type of site you could choose 1 or 2 specific charities.

[Andrew2010]

Thankyou for that advice Claire. Will let him know that as i think that is very important, thanks!

It is similar to the national lottery i suppose. He has a developer setting the site up now. It a one of those pixel sites, with the small boxes. His idea is to sell each box for £1. You buy a box for £1 and enter your postcode in that box. If your box gets drawn, you win. So it is very similar to the national lottery. He just wants to do something to help raise money and he thinks this is the best idea he has got. It was me that mentioned the pixel websites. I dint realise how many there are out there. This one i have to say is the best looking one as alot of time has gone into the design.

Have you got any ideas about how to make it more unique compared to the national lottery?

[mattk]

I think you'll find there are very tight laws surrounding your idea. You'll effectively be running a lottery site, as there is no element of skill involved. You'll almost certainly need a licence.

How to run a lottery (http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/actionnetwork/A2228519)

[Andrew2010]

Would there be a way around that? Instead of having winners. Like an incentive to buy a pixel? I mean most of the proceeds will be going to worthy causes but i dont belive that will be enough for people to participate.

Any ideas mattk?

[mattk]

The best ideas are the simplest. You're idea is needlessly complex!

The million dollar homepage work because it was so simple!

[Whistle Ink]

small lottery, small prizes :!:

I'd rather spend a pound on the national lottery and have a chance to win millions and know that money is going to charity as well. :D

[mattk]

Also - how are you going to collect entry fees? If you use PayPal then you'll lose a massive amount - their fees are 3.4% + £0.20. So if someone sends you a £1 entry fee you'll receive just 77p.

[Andrew2010]

But with several smaller prizes you would have a better chance of winning. A new kitchen, A new car, £5,000 vouchers etc. I mean the odds of winning over a million in the national lottery are very very low.

Would you sooner not have a better chance of winning something?

I understand matt the milliondollarhomepage was simple, but you could not just copy it surely, although alot have!

[ewan]

(once I'm eighteen) I'd echo what Whistle Ink said. I'd rather be in for a chance of millions and giving money away to charity. The national lottery has been running long enough to have an efficient and effective way of distributing money around the winners, charities, and camelot, and (I haven't looked) but I bet you can buy lottery tickets online anyway?

I can't see myself ever buying lottery tickets really btw. I'd rather invest lots and lots in a viable business idea, there'd probably be far more of a chance of making millions that way :)

[creacom]

The problem with private run lottery schemes is that a lot of people run them badly and in the end no money at all goes to charity and it all ends up in some awful persons pocket !

Our local newspapers have been running a similar story recently where somone set up this and was supposed to give 50% to cancer charities and in the end gave nothing and kept almost £8,000 for himself.

There was a man who was on this forum recently who claims to have a brother who got very rich with some sort of gambling scam. Another hoax. So many of these people about thesedays.

Jacqui

[MinuWeb]

the main issue is that alot of these say something like"50% of profits go to xyz charity"

The main problem with that is that salaries are pre profit, meaning they could take 1 million in entry fees, pay out 500,000 in prizes, a 499,000 salary for the MD and only 1000 goes to charity.

[m.shane]

How do you know if this is all legit and not a scam? I am not really sure with online scamming , I mean gambling :) Please send me your tips. FeeL free to shoot me a mail. Thanks and more power!

[quikshop]

Not read the whole thread so sorry if repeating, but there used to be the Monday lottery through which you could nominate the charity your money went to. Despite sustained TV advertising it didn't succeed, don't let your friend waste their money in trying to operate in a closed market.

[m.shane]

That's kind of off for me. I'd rather give money direct to the charity than do it online. There's a lot of things that could happen when you do it online. I was just stating my personal say :)

[m.shane]

That's kind of off for me. I'd rather give money direct to the charity than do it online. There's a lot of things that could happen when you do it online. I was just stating my personal say :)