My Son's Cub Scout Pack got around the raffle issue in a very logical. At each monthly Pack meeting, tickets were sold for 50 cents each. At the end of the meeting 2-4 tickets were drawn based on the number of items they had to give away that night. If you didn't win, you simply returned your ticket stub and received a "treat" of some kind (generally candy). Since all participants would receive something for their ticket price, it was not a chance drawing.
Chinese auctions,Tricky Trays, Basket Auctions all require a gaming licence. In New Jersey, you just need one license and it covers you for the entire school year. Even Picto (bingo using pictures) which is an event we run for elementary school students is considered gambling and requires a license. Seems silly, but there you go.
You would have to ask the officials that govern raffles in your state. That's another name for what I referring to above (drawing, bag raffle).
In Texas the legal definition of a raffle is the award of one or more prizes by chance at a single occasion among a single group of persons who have paid or promised to pay for a ticket that represents a chance to win a prize.
At one point we asked, basically expecting the answer to be "no" just so we could reassure everyone. We couldn't get a straight answer. They wanted me to consult a private lawyer to interpret the law.
The intent of the raffle rules is to protect the public from scams. In my mind, there's a big difference between a raffle for a $300 stereo or a car where you pre-sell tickets and a doorprize drawing or bag raffle that's done on site. But, of course, an unscrupulous person can find a way to taint any type of activity. So the legal definition may well include those.
But on a practical note, can you imagine the impact if every little organization tried to call with questions or register (if needed) all door prize drawings and bag raffles? The state agency governing it could never handle the volume of calls/registrations.
I'm usually one for following the rules. But in this particular case, I'd probably go with the assumption they aren't raffles until someone tells me differently.
Your school is profit, but is YOUR organization. If you have organized as a non-profit parent-teacher organization and you are running all your events under the PTO name, than that is different than your school holding the raffle.
Your local municipal building can help you sort out what you would need either way.
