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How To Determinate It Is Gambling?
Honestly, I’m still confused about how to define whether a certain activity counts as gambling or not. As far as I know, gambling occurs if the following conditions are met:
1. Zero-sum game. A player’s winnings come from someone else’s loss. For example, two people are playing poker at a casino, and they’re betting money on the game; the loser’s money goes to the winner.
2. There’s an element of chance.
3. There are people placing bets.
4. And something is at stake.
As far as I know, these four elements form the basis of gambling. But I’m confused about a few things—for example, if one of these four requirements is missing, does it still count as gambling? And other questions like that. I’d like to ask about some activities that I think might qualify as gambling, but I’m not entirely sure.
1. First up, the claw machine! You can find them in the toy section of malls, where you have to insert coins (purchased with real money) to play and try to win the stuffed animal inside. However, winning the stuffed animal isn’t as simple as just inserting a coin and playing—you’ll likely fail multiple times, or you might not be able to win it at all. Is this game considered gambling?
2. Random prizes in snack packages. Many snack companies offer a grand prize to anyone who finds the prize hidden inside a snack package. However, the ratio of snack packages containing the grand prize to those that don’t can be as high as 1:1,000,000 or more. People who want to win these prizes naturally buy large quantities of the snacks, but they still haven’t found one yet. Does buying these snacks in hopes of winning a prize constitute gambling?
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2 Replies
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How To Determinate It Is Gambling?
updated 3 hours, 41 minutes ago
2 Members
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Replies
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Gambling is the game of pure chance, where one claims another’s possession without offering anything valuable in return, whether it is a commodity or a service.
Prize money against a competition or effort is not gambling. This effort is not a game of chance but a directed effort.
The second case you cited has the traits of gambling: a game of pure chance.
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Okay, so based on your explanation, Case 1 isn’t gambling because there’s still an effort involved… but why isn’t Case 2 considered gambling, sir?
In the second case, it’s clear that the company is selling snacks while offering prizes to anyone who finds a redemption code or something similar. It’s true that this is similar to a lottery where you buy a ticket but might not win anything (this is a zero-sum game). However, this doesn’t apply to snacks with prizes, sir. Even if, for example, someone buys a snack to get a prize, they still get the snack even if they don’t win the grand prize (this isn’t a zero-sum game). As you said, sir, gambling occurs when we claim someone else’s property without giving anything in return. In the case of the snack, even if the buyer doesn’t win the grand prize, they still get the snack, which contains food!
What do you think, sir? Is my understanding correct?
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