Are Guild Lottery's a scam?

[Icemanfrost.5428]

I noticed many of these Guild do this weekly lottery. I wonder are they running this all legit operation or are they pocketing the money and not telling their members

[FrizzFreston.5290]

There's always other guild expenses. I always ask for donations for prizes and decorations and use it as such.

Either way I don't think you have to worry about guilds that youre not even in.

[Maikimaik.1974]

Of course some guilds do, it's sadly just how some people are.

[Danikat.8537]

Guilds are entirely player run and largely independent of Anet. The only guild activities which are regulated are the ones which are built into the game, like guild missions and guild halls. When you donate to the Treasurer in the guild hall you can be certain the materials are going to be used to upgrade the hall because they can't go to anything else - the leader can't take them and sell them for example. But if you put stuff in the guild bank any member with permission to access it can take them and then they can do what they like with them.

I'm absolutely sure that when my guilds have run contests it was done honestly - that the money and items collected were used as prizes and were given to a genuine winner. But that's because I trust the leader and the officers. If I join a new guild and they run a weekly lottery or whatever I won't join in until I feel like I've gotten to know the guild and I trust them to run it honestly. If they tell me I have to participate then I'll leave the guild.

It wouldn't surprise me to learn that some leaders have scammed gold and items out of their members, either through fake contests or some other method. I think if you know it's happened you could report them to Anet, but there's no way to prevent it happening in advance except for the reputation risk - if they're caught they're probably going to lose most their guild members and may find it very hard to recruit anyone else.

[Dawdler.8521]

This question is the same as "do people ever lie?". Come on. We all know the answer to that. No they dont.

[Deimos.4263]

Some guilds don't really need gold to operate, some do. It depends on what you're trying to do with the guild.

My guild does a lot of decorating, giveaways, and events that take a lot of gold and planning. It's extremely expensive. We have a guild lottery to attempt to generate funds, because it's rare that guild members will simply donate gold. If there's not something enticing them to do so, a small core group ends up fronting the whole cost.Personally I'd prefer it if guild members simply contributed, but the lotto is very popular with the members so we keep doing it.

From what I've seen in other guilds, it's typical for a guild to keep about 25% of the pot, and give the rest to the lotto winner. I do think most guild lottos are legit. They should post a draw date/time if they're not doing it live in guild chat, and announce the winners for all to see for transparency.

[Fremtid.3528]

Wow I had no idea guilds ran lottos and kept some of the proceeds. I ran a lotto in one guild where we gave the entire pot to the winner. I mean a lotto run similarly to a real life lotto (where the organization keeps some of the money) seems like a scam to me. I know you need money to run as a guild but people should donate to your guild because they genuinely enjoy your guild not because they hope of winning some big amount of money, gaining gold for decorations and building you hall that way just breeds bad blood imho. A guild shouldn't profit from activities it throws for its members. That's shady.

[Tanner Blackfeather.6509]

@Fremtid.3528 said:Wow I had no idea guilds ran lottos and kept some of the proceeds. I ran a lotto in one guild where we gave the entire pot to the winner. I mean a lotto run similarly to a real life lotto (where the organization keeps some of the money) seems like a scam to me. I know you need money to run as a guild but people should donate to your guild because they genuinely enjoy your guild not because they hope of winning some big amount of money, gaining gold for decorations and building you hall that way just breeds bad blood imho. A guild shouldn't profit from activities it throws for its members. That's shady.

It's shady if participants don't know.Consider it an event to get people engaged in contributing to the guild.

As long as1) It's entirely opt-in to contribute2) The proceeds go to the guild and not individuals in it3) It's clearly stated what the guild does with those proceedsI see no problem.

[Sapphire Artemis.3062]

I know that a lot of guilds use lotteries as a way to fund upgrades, keeping a small percentage rate of the entry fees, but I've never heard of anyone being scammed through this.

Still, send gold with caution.

[Deimos.4263]

@Fremtid.3528 said:Wow I had no idea guilds ran lottos and kept some of the proceeds. I ran a lotto in one guild where we gave the entire pot to the winner. I mean a lotto run similarly to a real life lotto (where the organization keeps some of the money) seems like a scam to me.It's not. Think of it more like any sort of charity fundraiser, where someone wins a large portion but not all of the proceeds; the rest goes to help support whatever cause. In this case, it's guild activities. In fact, without some benefit to the guild, why would a guild hold a lotto at all? Members can create their own pots at any time, you don't need a guild for that.

I know you need money to run as a guild but people should donate to your guild because they genuinely enjoy your guild not because they hope of winning some big amount of money, gaining gold for decorations and building you hall that way just breeds bad blood imho. A guild shouldn't profit from activities it throws for its members. That's shady.People should donate to their guild because they genuinely enjoy it. I truly wish that were the case, but it isn't. That's not the reality.

I've run several guilds large and small, and what happens is a very small core group tends to wind up funding everything. That's very limiting and unfair, but that's the reality.So you either can't afford to do things, or you need to generate funds. The majority of guild members in a guild tend to not even realize funds are needed; it simply doesn't cross their minds. By providing this incentive and opportunity to win some gold, they end up helping their guild where otherwise they would not. It allows the guild to do more without directly soliciting donations, or trying to charge dues, which tends not to work anyway. We do our draws right after weekly guild missions, it encourages participation in them and gives the members something to look forward to as well.

As the previous poster stated, of course the terms of the lotto are laid out beforehand. The funds are typically kept separate from pre-existing guild funds until the draw takes place. It's transparent as humanly possible and the winners are known and recorded. Fresh recruits aren't allowed to participate so that nobody gets salty about a newbie winning and then leaving the guild. As for that small core group I mentioned? They tend to participate and top up these lottos, offering addition items as secondary prizes, and are usually the members that outright refuse the prize if they do win. This is about as far from shady as it gets.

[Cyanchiv.2583]

As guilds are run by players than we must accept that some players will try to manipulate others for profit, however many guilds are run by players with good intentions. I'm a part of a community that does lottery, and they are transparent about taking a small portion of the money for use in guild activities ( food and banners, etc.). For years they have consistently done as stated with each lottery. That, I believe, is a great way to do lottery.

Alternatively I've seen another guild, mainly the leader, use lottery for personal profit. For example that player waited until after funds were received to claim that some money would be taken to benefit the guild. Shortly after the lottery the player was seen sporting new expensive skins that were not present before, while it was a friend of the player that won. No additional money or items were added to the guild bank as well.

So for short, some guilds and players will do it for fun and to benefit the guild, while others do scam. If you suspect a scam, do report the player.

[sephiroth.4217]

I am leader of a few guilds that run lotteries...

I do in fact pocket the gold... Ill put up something like a precursor to win, then people gives me money, Ill pull a name out of a hat and send off the precursor to the winner and keep the gold I was sent to fund the next lottery

The perks of being an event organizer I guess, spend 200g on a prize and keep the other 200g people send in for tickets to win said prize

[Icemanfrost.5428]

@sephiroth.4217 said:I am leader of a few guilds that run lotteries...

I do in fact pocket the gold... Ill put up something like a precursor to win, then people gives me money, Ill pull a name out of a hat and send off the precursor to the winner and keep the gold I was sent to fund the next lottery

The perks of being an event organizer I guess, spend 200g on a prize and keep the other 200g people send in for tickets to win said prize

That is shameful

[sephiroth.4217]

@Icemanfrost.5428 said:

@sephiroth.4217 said:I am leader of a few guilds that run lotteries...

I do in fact pocket the gold... Ill put up something like a precursor to win, then people gives me money, Ill pull a name out of a hat and send off the precursor to the winner and keep the gold I was sent to fund the next lottery

The perks of being an event organizer I guess, spend 200g on a prize and keep the other 200g people send in for tickets to win said prize

That is shameful

Well it's not a charity, it has to fund itself.

[Deimos.4263]

@sephiroth.4217 said:

@Icemanfrost.5428 said:

@sephiroth.4217 said:I am leader of a few guilds that run lotteries...

I do in fact pocket the gold... Ill put up something like a precursor to win, then people gives me money, Ill pull a name out of a hat and send off the precursor to the winner and keep the gold I was sent to fund the next lottery

The perks of being an event organizer I guess, spend 200g on a prize and keep the other 200g people send in for tickets to win said prize

That is shameful

Well it's not a charity, it has to fund itself.It's hardly shameful. (And how nice of you if you're not breaking even.) Frankly I'm surprised you're not bleeding money doing this. I'm assuming the precursor in question isn't Dusk?

[sephiroth.4217]

@Deimos.4263 said:

@sephiroth.4217 said:

@Icemanfrost.5428 said:

@sephiroth.4217 said:I am leader of a few guilds that run lotteries...

I do in fact pocket the gold... Ill put up something like a precursor to win, then people gives me money, Ill pull a name out of a hat and send off the precursor to the winner and keep the gold I was sent to fund the next lottery

The perks of being an event organizer I guess, spend 200g on a prize and keep the other 200g people send in for tickets to win said prize

That is shameful

Well it's not a charity, it has to fund itself.It's hardly shameful. (And how nice of you if you're not breaking even.) Frankly I'm surprised you're not bleeding money doing this. I'm assuming the precursor in question isn't Dusk?

Nah we stick to the cheaper ones or we put up loot drops we already own like Touch Of Madness from the Halloween trick or treat bags.

[Narrrz.7532]

@"Dawdler.8521" said:This question is the same as "do people ever lie?". Come on. We all know the answer to that. No they dont.

Especially not this guy, and even if he did, this wouldn't be an example of it!

[Biff.5312]

If you don't trust your guild managers, don't participate.

[polarbear.2497]

My guild has several prize draws every week (we give out around 300 gold per week, funded solely by the guild leaders). We do not ask for donations or entry fees for the prize draws - just ask that people participate in guild events. If you'd like to join, feel free to send me in-game mail at polarbear.2497

[Gambino.2109]

Lotteries are indeed very very scam worthy and proven by guild leaders who take to make legendaries and other expensive things.

How ever what others don't know won't hurt them right? Wrong, in cases like that officers and other leaders catch on and we get some nice bits of drama that often leads to groups leaving the guild and forming their own.

[Sugar Min.5834]

Hmm. Ok i have always wanted to know how the winners are being decided?

For monthly lotto or lucky draws, usually the GL or a senior officer of the guild will just announce, for example "this month's third price winner is xyz.123.... the second prize goes to abc.345...", so on and so forth. But no one ever explain how the draw is being done. No witness, no transparency? Or is it just up to the guild to decide who will be the winners for that month?

[Teratus.2859]

Depends on the people.. my main guild is really fair about that stuff so when we do little games with gold rewards it's all legit as far as I can tell.

I used to run this little hide and seek game after guild missions.I'd disable my guild rep then go and hide somewhere on a random map, would tell my guildmates which map I was on but they would have to find me.first one who found me got 1g from my own wallet.

It was fun and eventually I got a few others involved and we'd take turns or have a big game where you had to find several people in one game ^^

We don't do lottery's now but we do have weekly guild trivia where we can win some gold by getting the most questions about the game right, mostly they're about lore or the game world and GW2 fun facts etcThose are really fun even if you don't participate.

[Danikat.8537]

@"Mil.3562" said:Hmm. Ok i have always wanted to know how the winners are being decided?

For monthly lotto or lucky draws, usually the GL or a senior officer of the guild will just announce, for example "this month's third price winner is xyz.123.... the second prize goes to abc.345...", so on and so forth. But no one ever explain how the draw is being done. No witness, no transparency? Or is it just up to the guild to decide who will be the winners for that month?

As various people have explained in this topic guild lotteries or prize draws aren't a feature built into the game, it's something entirely created and run by players, so how they do it depends on the guild and could be different for each one. If you want to know how a specific guild does it you need to ask them, and then decide if you trust them or if they provide enough proof that it's not a scam based on their answers.

Personally I wouldn't pay into a guild lottery when I've just joined, I'd wait and see how the guild operates and get to know them first, then if I think I can trust them I might join in. Of course there's still not gaurentee you'll win, but at least you can be sure it's not because they're just taking the money.

[Omega.6801]

Depends on the guild and the lottery.

[blp.3489]

@sephiroth.4217 said:The perks of being an event organizer I guess, spend 200g on a prize and keep the other 200g people send in for tickets to win said prize

I'm not sure how to parse this, you are spending 200g and collecting 200g, or you are spending 200g and collecting 400g for 200g in personal profit?

Personally gaining 200g out of each event, i.e. doubling your money, seems a bit excessive, but I guess as long as the participants know that is what is happening I guess it is their choice. Gambling has a surprising appeal to a lot of people.

I wonder if you have found a lot of suckers or this was a troll post.