What happen to this site should be the primary guide to what answer or answers should be selected as correct.
This will run for a while 2030 close date is nominal and could easily be much different.:
If it is known that manifold will close then best judgement should be used by me prior to closure.
If manifold announce they have been cleared to do what they are doing with this "sweepstake" model then it can be resolved likely as "There is no difference."
If they have to make changes so there are no fees on sweepstake markets that will be strong indicator that it should close as "A house edge"
and so on.
In "Molly's Game", Molly was not only charged but racketeering provisions were also invoked. It was implied that this was because the game was "not fair" when she took a percentage of a few pots. She was making money so I have split first two options to distinguish between a house edge for purpose of making money versus just to cover costs which perhaps could be an important distinction.
I am mainly doing this to see discussion of what is a sweepstake and how, if at all, it differs from gambling and illegal gambling. I'll start:
I think, in a sweepstake, after paying a stake you are randomly allocated a gambling position. You can choose to pay more and get more positions. The difference to my mind is that in gambling you can research what position to take up and this can lead to more and more time spent in an addictive habit that you will figure out how to be better.
This difference seems to me to be a likely reason why there is a sweepstake exception to gambling rules in some locations.
So what are others thoughts and is this site pushing sweepstakes exception somewhat or to the limit or beyond those limits?
Please do comment with your thoughts.
I wasn't going to bet on this, but forgot and did a couple. I'll try to remember not to do so again.
1,000
3.00@UnspecifiedPerson Interesting. To me the "stakes" part of sweepstakes means you, at least typically, do have to put money in to create a prize pool to distribute to winners.
It could easily be a legally relevant point for manifold.
A sweepstake is a method of gambling in which each person pays a small amount of money and is given the name of a competitor before a race or contest. The person who has the name of the winner receives all the money.
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/sweepstake#:~:text=(swi%CB%90pste%C9%AAk%20),winner%20receives%20all%20the%20money.
How would you participate without putting in money?
The "all" maybe important. Personally if 50% goes to holder of 1st place 30% to holder of 2nd place 18% to holder of 3rd place and 2% to cover costs and competitors allocated randomly then I would call it a sweepstakes but I suspect that it may not qualify for sweepstake exemption because not all the money is redistributed.
@nikki OK that is different from my understanding where sweepstakes has stakes. That seems more like allowing a free prize draw. Why wouldn't a free prize draw be allowed? Despite this, that does seem to be usage in US.
What manifold's is doing does not seem to fit this.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweepstake
"By definition, the winner is determined by pure random chance rather than skill."
seems to me to prohibit choosing what position to take up.
It is possible to take part in manifold sweepstakes without paying. Does this sufficiently remove the consideration part of gambling? I am tending to remain dubious of this if it is possible to buy spice points.
@ChristopherRandles Buying sweepstakes entries doesn't change the chance you will win, so it is still a game of chance. That is Manifold's legal position
@nikki The suggestions seem to get more ridiculous.
If I stake more, I win more is a gambling arrangement. Saying it doesn't change the odds of winning seems completely irrelevant to me. Whether that is meant to be on a per stake or in total basis, it is just irrelevant.
People clearly exhibit skill here at winning mana. It is clearly a game of skill not chance. The skill is in choosing which way to bet. Random allocation of position would be a game of chance but in Manifold people clearly choose which way to bet.
Incidentally I am not submitting identity documents to claim spice points. Providing document to an organisation that seems willing to bend laws way past breaking point would seem an odd organisation to trust with such document. Not sure if others are thinking the same way.