AFTER we had our raffle for a complete computer system (which the people loved) we were informed that we broke board policy...not state law. We did go through all of the proper channels on the state level. We obtained a license and everything. But our superintendant told us that according to board policy children are not allowed to be involved in games of chance (basically the only thing most kids did was deliver the tickets to their parents and return the money and stubs to school). It is unfortunate that we can't do raffles any more because the parents loved it and it was quite profitable:-(

Have any of you that have held raffles run into any legal problems? We've found the world of gaming (bingo, raffles, any game of chance, etc.) to be heavily regulated and I've heard a few horror stories about "innocent" raffles turning into nightmares legally. I ran across one story where the Department of Education (Oklahoma, I think) just flat banned them from all school related activities due to problems.

However, we've already struggled with the moral delimma of Bingo. (It's illegal in Texas unless you go through the application process to get a permit.) Organizations like PTO's "just do it anyway" all the time. But our Board felt we couldn't hold ourselves up as role models to the kids if we knowingly ran an illegal activity.

I fear we may be getting into the same thing with raffles. We hope to have a raffle in conjunction with our Spring Fling. Can any of you share experiences?

[This message has been edited by JHB (edited 02-09-2001).]