Profitable Until Deemed Illegal
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Profitable Until Deemed Illegal
1–10 of 135 posts
Re: Profitable Until Deemed Illegal
#2Wow. This is both genius, and despicable. It's amazing what kind of profit they drive, yet it seems like they're really taking advantage of people with gambling addictions, or poor money management skills.
Re: Profitable Until Deemed Illegal
#3"Entertainment Shopping" is their slogan. I wonder if that's going to be their legal defense. "You're paying for the entertainment..not the item"
Re: Profitable Until Deemed Illegal
#4Reminds me of the old party game, Dollar Auction. Bidding's in 10-cent increments, and the prize is $1. The twist is that the top two bidders pay their bids, but only #1 gets the prize.
Bidding will go far past $1 because, even though it's a loss to pay $1.10 for $1, the 90-cent bidder would rather lose 10 cents than 90. I've heard of bidding going up into the $20 range.
Re: Profitable Until Deemed Illegal
#5Pardon my ignorance...
Why does the author call this website illegal? I'm not sure what laws they are violating.
Re: Profitable Until Deemed Illegal
#6I was in a game theory class and we were learning about auctions. Just don't ask me how much I paid for his $5 bill in his "all-pay" auction - it would have been evil if it didn't go to charity. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All-pay_auction)
Re: Profitable Until Deemed Illegal
#7Pardon my ignorance... Why does the author call this website illegal? I'm not sure what laws they are violating.
Not sure, but I'm pretty sure these guys are not licensed by any state gaming boards to operate as a legal gambling establishment.
So I guess the author thinks this qualifies as gambling (and it probably does) and therefore these guys are in violation of said laws. Remember, when you're a legal gaming establishment there is a mountain of red tape and paperwork to stay legal... and this company is probably engaged in enough shenanigans that it would be considered a Bad Thing.
Re: Profitable Until Deemed Illegal
#8Pardon my ignorance... Why does the author call this website illegal? I'm not sure what laws they are violating.
He doesn't say that it is illegal, only that it's so shady that it's likely someone will make a law against it. It could fall under gambling laws, since you're basically buying chances to win the opportunity to buy something at a low price.
Re: Profitable Until Deemed Illegal
#9Pardon my ignorance... Why does the author call this website illegal? I'm not sure what laws they are violating.
It will likely be called a raffle because buying the "tickets" costs money and you will very likely get nothing for it.
In almost all states in the USA, raffles are illegal as part of the private lottery statutes. In practice, enforcement agents usually look the other way for small non-profit raffles like the kind held in church basements for pies and such.
They are extremely unlikely to look the other way in this case!
Re: Profitable Until Deemed Illegal
#10Pardon my ignorance... Why does the author call this website illegal? I'm not sure what laws they are violating.
The expression "profitable until deemed illegal" is used when what the business is doing is so obviously despicable and evil that if it continues the government will probably pass a law against it. (This is basically an offshore gambling site we're talking about, though, no more and no less. Therefore, I'm not sure how apt the expression is to what's actually going to happen.)
Or, to put it another way, it's so fiendish that no one though to ban it before.