Announcement: Lotto / Money Games Rules and Guidelines - Update 9.29.06

[Ambu]

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Welcome to the Lotto/Money Games subforum of Gaia Exchange. This is a forum for users who wish to create a lottery or other kind of gold related games.

This sticky is meant to provide you with the rules of the forum, as well as with tips and suggestions on how to run a successful lotto, or to keep from being scammed. Please take a moment to read all of the thread and please check back for updates regularly.




Navigation

• Things to watch out for; BEWARE
  
• Rules & Guidelines
  
• Suggestions for Lottos/Games creators
  
• Suggestions for participants
  
• Contacting a mod / What to report
  
• FAQ
  

Update 9.29.06
There were some alterations to a few rules, please take the time to review them. The changes have been made to the following rules;

• NEW! Minor Change Entering contests/games/lottos** with mules or own account
  This is not permitted. If proven that a creator has entered a contest/game/lotto with a mule account, it is considered a scam. The creator will be banned along with the mule that was used to enter the contest/game/lotto. And obviously, if the creator joins his/her contest/game/lotto, it is also considered as scam.
  
  Note: There are a few games which require participants to play against a "house", usually the thread owner. Because these types of games cannot be played unless the 'house' is allowed they will be allowed under an exception. Please keep in mind that all threads are subject to moderator review and if your thread is found to not be an exception a note will be sent with a request to change.
  
  ** All threads of this nature which involve participants and transactions of gold.
  
  
  
• NEW! Major Change Present the method of picking the winner
  All lotteries/games/contests/etc which require a 'random' winner must use one of Gaia's two random generator post options to present the winners. The dice roll option or the random number generator are both allowed as long as the highest number and lowest number of entrants are represented.
  Example; If you have 500 participants in a lotto, the random number generater would be easiest as you can easily generate a random number between 1 and 500; however, with a dice roll you cannot unless you use a multiple of 5 - 100 sided dice. But if you did that, then participants 1-4 would not be able to win. Please make sure that your choice of random use equally represents all participants.
  
  Note: Because this is a change that requires many users to alter their existing lottos we will allow users a chance to make this change. All new lottos must immediately use this method. Any pre-existing lottos will be given a chance to change their methods. This change is being made due to the large risk of scamming and cheating that is capable when the 'random user' is chosen by methods outside of Gaia. Because of this, failure to alter your methods of choosing a winner may result in the deletion of your thread and/or a warning.
  
  REPORTERS: If you see a thread which is still using a non-gaia Randomizer posting that there has been a rule change is okay. But please do so in a non-threatening or rude way. If a thread owner refuses to make the change, DO NOT CONTINUE POSTING OR ARGUING, simply report the thread and a moderator will talk to the thread owner. Any users found harassing a thread owner about this change will be dealt with so please keep this in mind.
  

Update 8.14.06
Added a note about quiz/questionaire threads. These should be posted in the Chatterbox forum and not in the lotto/money games forum. Please see the rules and guidelines post for more information.

Thanks!

[Ambu]

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~ Scams Be careful when entering lottos as occassionaly these are used for scamming. Please make sure to read the post in regards to lotto/games participants to keep yourself safe from these types of lottos. All games and lottos in this forum are a gamble and not a way of making quick money; try to avoid putting all of your gold into one lotto.

If you are a user attempting to use the lottos/money games as a get rich quick scheme please be aware that scamming will result in the permabanning of your account. There are no warnings first for scammers.



~ Wrapped Presents These are legitimate games, but please be aware that it is easily to be scammed by doing so. With user-wrapped gifts you have no way of knowing for sure of what you are buying. Often times users lie about the value of an item to get more out of them. Please be very careful when purchasing wrapped presents.

Please also note that because the point of selling wrapped presents is the surprise of what you get, sellers are not required to prove what is in the box. WRAPPED PRESENTS ARE BUY AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Users selling wrapped presents; if you say the value of an item is 10-15k but really is only 2k this is classified as a scam and is bannable. As well, lying about the actual items in the wrapped gift are bannable as well.



~ Highest Donator contests While in the past some of these were legitimate there were far too many issues with these being scams and a lot of users losing gold with them that they have all been dis-allowed. If you see users offering [item] for the highest donator please report it using the "report a post/thread" feature. Note: Offering prizes for all donors, or for a randomly chosen donator is not the same thing; this only applies to contests offering specific items/gold for the highest donator.

Most everything in this forum is a gamble and not a sure thing. Please use common sense and use these guides to make your experience here is an enjoyable one and scam free.

[Ambu]

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Things explained here:
- Mules or accounts entered in lottos/contests.
- Refunding of participants
- Must have [item] to create [item] lotto.
- Present the method of picking the winner
- Wrapped giftboxes
- Highest Donator contests
- Advertising in threads
- Advertising through PMs
- "Send trade titled 'Banana' otherwise I'll accept it as a donation"
- Quiz/Questionaire Threads
- Disrupting a lotto/game

• NEW! Entering contests/games/lottos** with mules or own account
  This is not permitted. If proven that a creator has entered a contest/game/lotto with a mule account, it is considered a scam. The creator will be banned along with the mule that was used to enter the contest/game/lotto. And obviously, if the creator joins his/her contest/game/lotto, it is also considered as scam.
  
  Note: There are a few games which require participants to play against a "house", usually the thread owner. Because these types of games cannot be played unless the 'house' is allowed they will be allowed under an exception. Please keep in mind that all threads are subject to moderator review and if your thread is found to not be an exception a note will be sent with a request to change.
  
  ** All threads of this nature which involve participants and transactions of gold.
  
  
  
• Refunding is required if the contest closes
  If you decide to close your contest/lotto before the previously set end date you are required to refund the full amount to participants. This does not mean that the creator needs to refund if a contestant decides to quit. It is up to the creator to decide if s/he will refund when a contestant want to quit the contest. But you must state beforehand if you are refunding or not.
  
  
  
• Must have [item] in order to create [item] lottery
  If you want to start a lottery where the prize is i.e. Fairy Wings, you must have the Fairy Wings. Giving the excuse that you will buy the item when you've enough gold from buying tickets is prohibited because of scam risks.
  Note: Prizes paid in gold only are still OK. I.e. you create a lottery with 50,000 gold in 1st prize, but do not have that much, and intend to use the ticket sale to pay the winner is OK.
  
  
  
• NEW! Present the method of picking the winner
  All lotteries/games/contests/etc which require a 'random' winner must use one of Gaia's two random generator post options to present the winners. The dice roll option or the random number generator are both allowed as long as the highest number and lowest number of entrants are represented.
  Example; If you have 500 participants in a lotto, the random number generater would be easiest as you can easily generate a random number between 1 and 500; however, with a dice roll you cannot unless you use a multiple of 5 - 100 sided dice. But if you did that, then participants 1-4 would not be able to win. Please make sure that your choice of random use equally represents all participants.
  
  Note: Because this is a change that requires many users to alter their existing lottos we will allow users a chance to make this change. All new lottos must immediately use this method. Any pre-existing lottos will be given a chance to change their methods. This change is being made due to the large risk of scamming and cheating that is capable when the 'random user' is chosen by methods outside of Gaia. Because of this, failure to alter your methods of choosing a winner may result in the deletion of your thread and/or a warning.
  
  REPORTERS: If you see a thread which is still using a non-gaia Randomizer posting that there has been a rule change is okay. But please do so in a non-threatening or rude way. If a thread owner refuses to make the change, DO NOT CONTINUE POSTING OR ARGUING, simply report the thread and a moderator will talk to the thread owner. Any users found harassing a thread owner about this change will be dealt with so please keep this in mind.
  
  
• Wrapped giftboxes
  You can have your prizes in wrapped giftboxes, but if you have promised that the contents of the wrapped giftbox is a certain item or value, then it must contain that certain item or be of that value. If not, it is considered as scamming which is a bannable offense.
  
  
  
• Highest donator contest
  Are not permitted. We have had far too many issues with many of these being scams so they have all been dis-allowed. Creating these types of contests will result in a warning and possible banning of your account. Announcement: Read for more information.
  
  
  
• Advertising in threads
  Advertising or begging is not permitted in any threads in this forum unless the thread owner has explicitily stated users are free to do so in their thread. If you find users advertising or begging in threads that do not say they can do so please use the "report this post" feature to report it to a moderator.
  
  
  
• Advertising through PMs
  Please do NOT PM users to ask them if they would like to join your lottery/contest. This will be treated as spam since it is advertisement. It's unwanted PMs and if someone report it to a moderator, you will receive a warning/ban for spamming. Advertising for your lotto is only permitted in the Chatterbox and done so anywhere else will be treated/warned for spam.
  
  
  
• "Send trade titled 'Banana' otherwise I'll accept it as a donation"
  It is fine to request that if a trade is sent with gold for entry that it is somehow labeled so that you know what it is for (in case you are running multiple auctions/charities/lotteries). However, refusing the person entry and instead taking the trade as a donation because it is not labeled a particular way is not allowed, as it is exploiting users to gain gold. If a trade has mistakingly been taken as a donation and the user claims it was for the entry you must enter them or return the gold. There are no exceptions.
  
  If you see any such threads, please use the Report a Thread function to bring the matter to a moderator's attention.
  
  
  
• Quiz/Questionaire Threads
  Do not belong in this forum. It seems to becoming a trend that these threads find themselves in the lotto/money games forum. While to some a questionaire/quiz can be a game, this is not really in the spirit of the forum. These types of threads should be located in the Chatterbox forum. Please also keep in mind; any of these types of threads that you find that ask you for password, or for the answers of your security questions is NOT permitted and should be reported to a moderator. Thanks.
  
  
  
• Disrupting a lotto/game
  Do NOT disrupt threads. Purposefully going into a thread to disrupt the thread is not permitted, this is considered trolling. This includes going into a thread and claiming a certain thread/user is a scammer/scam. Any posts of this nature will be removed and you will be warned.

Participants of lotteries/money games:

Remember: The gold you got scammed out of will not be returned by admins or moderators. It is up to everyone to be careful which lotteries/money games they participate in.

Same applies to users who quit Gaia without any notice. Admins and moderators are not responsible for returning gold a user decided to invest in any kind of lottery/money game.

Worthy of re-reading:

From the Terms of Service

IX. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES
You expressly understand and agree that:

1. The Service is provided "As Is" and GAIA Online makes no warranties - expressed or implied - of any kind. You use the Service at your own risk. Furthermore, it should be noted, that GAIA Online assumes no responsibility for the accidental or circumstantial loss of inventory items, Gold, Avatars, lost communications, missed events or loss of personalization of a User's account for ANY reason.

From the official Gaia Rules & Guidelines

Grounds for banning also include:

• Scamming. We reward our users with Gold and hard to find rares, but we have no tolerance for people who try to take other users' assets with get-rich-quick schemes or promises of rare items. Running any kind of scam - including but not limited to lottery scams or trade scams.

[Ambu]

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• Think through first before creating a lotto/contest
  A lotto takes time to manage. Creating a lottery/contest doesn't guarantee you'll earn a profit and it's not your way to a fortune. It all depends on if people buy your tickets, and that depends on if your lottery is good and attractive.
  
  
• Spend time to organize your lotto
  It's worth it to spend the time to create a lotto that's well organized. Put some effort into creating the lotto/contest. The main reason is because this helps your lotto look well established and gives the buyers a good impression.
  
  
• Refund if participants quits?
  You need to let the buyers know if you refund to the participants in case they want to quit. If they want to withdraw from the lottery/contest, will you refund 100%? Or will you not refund at all and let them stay? This is very important to include as users often like to know what they are getting themselves into.
  
  
• Setting up your own rules
  Please remember to set up your rules for the contest. If you don't put up your rules, a user might have the right to i.e. demand you to refund, since it doesn't state that you will not refund if a participant quits. However, please keep in mind that your rules are not to violate our own. As well, if you have set up a rule for your thread that is not covered by Gaia ToS or the forum rules it is your responsibility to enforce those rules. (ex. User spams your thread, since spamming in general is not a violation of the Lotto forum rules you should handle this yourself such as refunding the user and removing them from your contest.) Please keep in mind this does not mean you can violate the rules by handling these, but it is not the responsibility of moderators to enforce your own created rules.
  
  
• Using price values when accepting items as payment
  For the lotteries who accept items as payment for tickets, please make sure that the value of items you accept are being treated at the same value the items can be purchased as.
  (ex. Tickets being sold for 100g each. User offers Sealed letter which is generally 6-7k, the user should recieve roughly 60-70 tickets in return respectfully.)
  
  
• Method of picking a winner in lotteries
  It is now a requirement to use the "Roll Dice" or "Random number" featured in Gaia's posting system. This ensures a completely 100% effective way of picking a random user and reduces the chance of scams.
  
  
• Earning a lot =/= good for business
  It's not prohibited to earn more than 50% of the sales, but be smart. If the odds to win is low, ticket price is high compared to how much you will win, people won't buy tickets to your lottery.
  
  
• 50 million Lotto!!
  Realistically these types of lottos are not possible. Even users who are well respected and very active generally cannot run a successful lotto of this size. This is because it usually requires hundreds of thousands of participants, or participants who are willing to dish out hundreds of thousands of gold. Very unlikely. To run a successful lotto you should think of one that could realistically be done within only a month or two. There are some that run a lot longer, and are successful. However when starting out, you should start small. Suitable lottos for people starting out are 5k, 10k, 50k, and 100k. This does not mean that larger lottos are scam. This is merely a suggestion for a succesful lotto.
  Note: Do not report a lotto just because it is larger and the creator is new. A users join date and size of a lotto does not determine if it is a scam or not.
  

[Ambu]

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• Too good to be true
  If you see a lotto or contest that seems too good to be true, take your time to think twice before entering. 10 spots, 1000 gold / spot, and 5 million in prize? Doesn't sound logical right? These kind of lotteries / contests are usually scams. If you see these kind of lotteries / contests, do report them using the Report a Scamming form. Do not report these using the "report this thread/post" button.
  
  
  
• Entering =/= guaranteed prize
  Remember that just because you've entered a lottery/contest, doesn't mean that it's guaranteed that you'll win. There are winners and losers in all contests.
  
  
  
• Read the rules
  Before entering a lottery or a contest, please remember to read the rules. I.e., if you didn't know that the owner of a lottery didn't refund if a user wanted to quit, and you want to refund, PMing a mod doesn't help anything. If the creator states refunds will not be given if you leave, you will not get your gold back.
  Same with Avatar contests, if you failed to read the rules, it is not the creators fault. You have to be sure to carefully read and understand the rules.
  
  
  
• Item lotteries
  If you've joined an item lottery, and suspect that the user doesn't have the item in question, you can ask the lottery creator to put the item on (politely please, do not act or treat the user as a scammer). If the the creator refuses, you can fill out the Report a Scamming form to notify a mod and have a moderator to investigate this.
  
  
  
• Wrapped giftboxes
  Be very suspicious about wrapped giftboxes. There is no way to gaurantee what is in the boxes. If a deal never had anything to do with an item in a wrapped giftbox, do not confirm the trade. The item in the wrapped giftbox is probably not the promised item. If a user is trying to provide a prize with a wrapped gift politely ask them to open the box before you accept the trade.
  

[Ambu]

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Please use the "report this thread/post" for all ToS violations, except scams. Scams should be reported using the Report a Scamming form.

exclaim arrow If you need immediate attention please contact an online moderator. You can find all Lotto/Money game mods here.
Reasons to contact an online mod directly:

• Jesusbots
  
• People posting offensive images
  
• People spamming off-site advertisement
  
• People scam spamming
  
• Post deletion request in a thread you were trying to set up

Definitions of above list:
Jesus bots - Users setting up a botting program to paste lengthy sermons about Jesus.

Remember, for emergencies always PM an ONLINE mod. If you cannot find an online moderator for your forum but have something urgent to report, find one from outside of your forum.

arrow Please keep in mind that mods do not help you to confirm that your lotto/money game is scam free. So please do not contact us and ask us to give you a "scam free pass".




DO NOT REPORT SCAM TO US DIRECTLY OR THROUGH THE POST/THREAD REPORTS. REPORT BY USING THE SCAM REPORT FORM.

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Reporting a Scam:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you have been scammed, or suspect that a certain lottery/money game is a scam, you need to use the Report a Scamming form.
(this is also linked from the bottom of the forum index page)


arrow When filling out the form please make sure to provide all of the information you possibly can. Include all details and links so that we can process your report as quickly and correctly as possible.

• Username of account scammed
  
• Username of account that did the scamming
  
• Time this scam occured
  
• How? [please include any and all related information, including links as well as screenshots if necessary. ]
  
• Missing Items
  
• Additional Notes
  

These take awhile to investigate and process so please be patient. If more information is needed you will be contacted; but please bare in mind that if no additional information is needed you will not necessarily recieve a reply. This does not mean your report was not handled.

[Ambu]

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Q. Why do I have to own the item in order to have it as a prize? I was going to use the ticket money to buy the item!

A. There are multiple reasons. Mainly to prevent scams, but also to avoid new users who start i.e. a Fairy Wing lotto just because they see others having successful similar lotteries and want to earn gold quick. These are in many cases not successful and end up with the creator closing the lottery.



Q. Can I PM you or any other moderator to get you to approve/give me advice on my contest/lottery?

A. No, we do not approve lotteries/contest. Having a mod "approve" a lottery means the lottery is scam-free, and I don't feel comfortable in doing that, because there is no guarantee you won't scam later. And using mod approval as advertisment is just wrong.
Also, if you want advice, please read the provided posts for advise. If you wish for more advise on how to run a successful lotto please use one of the two user run stickies that provide this information.



Q. I have something to add to this sticky, can I PM you or other moderators about it?

A. Yes, you can, and it'd be best to PM me or another mod for this forum. Please note that just because you PM me with something to add to this thread does not mean it will be added.



Q. Someone is taking forever to end their lotto. Can I report him/her for scamming?

A. Depends. If the user isn't active in their lottery thread and doesn't update or post in the thread every once in a while, chances are that s/he's left her lotto. But there is no rule as: you need to sell all your tickets within 1 week. Most lotteries needs more than one week to end. If the creator has stated that the lottery ends when all slots are filled, it ends when all slots are filled. Doesn't mean it's scamming because it takes longer time to end the lottery.

[Ambu]

[Ambu]