Facebook Draws / Competitions

[WeeDonns]

I enter the ones on aspirecomps.co.uk from time to time as they list stuff I'd like to win

I know 100% for a fact that one of the sites already mentioned by 2 posters above has raffled machinery that was subject to vat fraud

[David McKeown]

We did a lot of research into them mind and the company and prizes were legit.

We've had a few legal opinions on a GAA-run one that suggest that they aren't strictly legal in NI, that new legislation was waiting or something, but not yet passed. It was probably 3 years ago at this stage that we looked into it.

Does your research suggest they are ok then?

That's kind of what I was hinting at.  They certainly aren't legal under current NI legislation.  For example they have discounts for buying more tickets.  That's not allowed.  It becomes a bit murkier though when they are run off shore.  When I say they are legit I mean they do own and have the prizes they are advertising available and the winners do get their winnings.

Is that illegal? That's near common practice for draws. 1 for a pound, 5 for 2 pound etc.

Totally legal and above board. R Kings and McKinney's are big business.

These draws only became legal in NI last Spring with change to the betting laws. Before that completely illegal but there was no appetite to challenge them with changes incoming.

Aye in fairness it's been about 18 months since I looked at the law in the area but yes variable prices for tickets wasn't lawful at the time. In fact it still isn't on unlicensed lotteries. Maximum of £1000 takings on those too. It is though now much easier to obtain a licence than it used to be.

[Armagh18]

Not gonna name the site but know of a certain person who had a car seized as it was bought with proceeds of crime, funnily enough the same car was raffled by one of those sites not long after and a relative of the original owner just happened to win it!

All in all though most of those sites are legit with genuine winners from all over Ireland and UK. R Kings was making an absolute killing over lockdown, not sure if they are still as busy. Fair play to them!

[AnPuca]

See some fella won £200k last night on The Prize Guy. Crazy money and fair play to winner. Hope it's legit.

The Facebook competitions came up in chat in work there this past week. Whole craic was some lads that are known drug dealers in Belfast area had a few of these pages doing the rounds as a way to earn a quick buck and to get the money laundered as wasn't being investigated fully. I don't know enough about how they done all that but does raise some eyebrows.

Only one I've ever entered was RKings who are legit from what I've heard. Know a couple folk that won big prizes with them