To buy tickets for my own raffle?

[KeithLeMonde]

Interested to know the consensus on this one!

I've been working hard to organise a raffle to benefit a charity. I've organised some great prizes which have been generously donated

WIBU to buy tickets and put my own name in the draw? I would get someone else to pull out the winners.

That would be a big no-no for me. I'd think twice about entering a raffle if I knew the organiser was buying tickets. Can you imagine if your ticket came out first? No one would believe it wasn't fixed.

@campion - I agree with you. We have an annual Christmas raffle at work and without fail a few people have more than one ticket come out, even though hundreds of tickets are sold. These people always accept all the prizes, and they're all good prizes. I think if you contribute a few quid and the prizes are expensive, then it's kind to accept one and refuse others so that you give other people a chance of winning. That's my thinking anyway.

A bigger pitfall to avoid is drawing out the third prize ticket first, then the second and then the first. By all mean read them out in that order but you have to draw out the first prize ticket first, then the second, third and so on. Why? If you did the former, the person who came third would never be in the drawer for the second or first prize. And similarly for the person who came second in terms of the first prize ... and that legally invalidates any raffle (there are actual legal precedents).

Thanks everyone, backs up my gut feeling that this wouldn't be seen well.

I do find it odd though - not so much in my own case a I appreciate how people will see that, but take PTA raffles. Person A Person B each buy a ticket. Person A attended the last PTA meeting and subsequently spent an afternoon on the local high street calling on shops and drumming up prizes. Person B didn't attend meeting, just bought ticket. Neither of them pull the raffle. Both of them benefit equally from the raffle's existence (as both have a child at the school). But it's acceptable for B to win a prize and not A.

I'm accepting my YABU with good grace but the above scenario doesn't make sense to me.

Yet another to say that if you're the organiser, and you're selling tickets to the general public, then it's going to look shady AF if you win.