Since you brought it up why not compare the odds? I cannot tell you for sure which raffle had better odds but I can tell you for sure that the BFL raffle certainly did not have MUCH better odds.
the BFL raffle was "1 ticket for 0.5 BTC, ends in 1 week". at the end, not many people bought the tickets, resulting in better-than-expected odds.
Also my odds are very clear and concise, 1 Bitcoin = 1 in 300 Chance. The odds from that raffle ended up being very confusing and no one even knew what the odds were until the end of the raffle.
apples to oranges. your odds are fixed, whereas BFL raffle was based on how many people bought tickets. in both cases, the rules were clearly stated.
No disrespect to Matt, he did a really good job and had some very innovative ideas about the raffle (and gave me the idea for Coinraffle) it just did not pan out as good as he had hoped.
The 20% donation serves two purposes other than helping out the forum
It makes it less of an incentive for the raffle operator to cheat, which was a concern that was brought up on the BFL raffle thread (not that anyone accused Matt of cheating but it was pointed out how easy it would be to do so)
and its a Bonus for playing this raffle.
LOL, you're getting a whopping 42% anyways, already a huge incentive not to cheat.
The bottom line is this, people are not playing the raffle just out of the desire to donate to the forum, your missing the point here of course that is a nice BONUS and its great to help out the forum but the reason people are playing is to WIN A 7970!
This raffle provides excellent odds - 1 in 300 to win a Saphire Radeon HD 7970, one of the best gaming and mining GPUs in the world.
oh please, not this statement again. you're justifying your huge profit margin by making a small donation. like i said in my previous posts, it's mathematically better to simply gamble somewhere else, and donate the winnings to the forum or buy a 7970. i haven't looked around in the gambling section much, but i'm pretty sure most games don't have a 42% profit margin.
This is the reason people are playing, and I am sorry I have to reiterate this but the rules and terms are out in the open for everyone to see, people want to take a risk for 1 Bitcoin to possibly turn that into a six hundred dollar video card, I am providing that chance and getting a nice payday because of it and be able to help out my favorite forum at the same time.
( say it with me now : Free Market )
Im going to say it again, and this is not to you grue its to anyone if you dont like it please just dont play. I am not deceiving anyone into playing this, they are adults making a decision to play and if you dont like it good, go make a better raffle.
"free market" seems to be the favorite cop-out on this forum. don't like my pyramid/ponzi/drugs/slaves/guns/morally questionable practices? it's a free market! bitcoin is free market, therefore your argument is invalid.
i'm not sure what your definition of "excellent odds" are, but a 42% rake is pretty high. of course, that's just my opinion, and i'm sure you're tired of me ruining up your thread so i promise that this will be the last reply i make.