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What's despicable about offering a service people want to use? Isn't this just like offering poker games and other gambling, or selling beer (you pay for something that harms your health, and the only saving grace is that people enjoy it)?
In our legal system however, something is probably wrong with it.
Wow. 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.
What they're doing is most probably not illegal. What they are doing is leveraging a lot of little things to make themselves good cash. Let's be very clear - they use auctions. This is not a lottery. At the end of the day, the high bidder "wins" and pays the amount of the high bid to win the auction. Then Swoopo adds the (.75 * number of bids placed) to that figure. It's not inconceivable that that sum is less than M…
Except you CANT guarantee yourself a win, and you certainly can't guarantee yourself a win at any price. It IS essentially random what the bidders competing with you do in response to your "last" bid.
What they're doing is most probably not illegal. What they are doing is leveraging a lot of little things to make themselves good cash. Let's be very clear - they use auctions. This is not a lottery. At the end of the day, the high bidder "wins" and pays the amount of the high bid to win the auction. Then Swoopo adds the (.75 * number of bids placed) to that figure. It's not inconceivable that that sum is less than M…
Except you CANT guarantee yourself a win, and you certainly can't guarantee yourself a win at any price. It IS essentially random what the bidders competing with you do in response to your "last" bid.
Pardon 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 ca…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 ca…
If they reduce the charge per-bid enough, then it does become an auction site. (And if it's large enough by that point, they'll still be raking it in.) They could also invite others with goods to sell and share the per-bid fee. If both of those things happen in a timely fashion, then it will be difficult for the authorities to argue that it's not an auction site.
What they're doing is most probably not illegal. What they are doing is leveraging a lot of little things to make themselves good cash. Let's be very clear - they use auctions. This is not a lottery. At the end of the day, the high bidder "wins" and pays the amount of the high bid to win the auction. Then Swoopo adds the (.75 * number of bids placed) to that figure. It's not inconceivable that that sum is less than M…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Except you CANT guarantee yourself a win, and you certainly can't guarantee yourself a win at any price. It IS essentially random what the bidders competing with you do in response to your "last" bid.
Why is guaranteeing a win a requisite for being an auction site?
Sounds very similar to pyramid reward schemes to me.