Q559 :Is it allowed to conduct raffles or lotteries
in order to raise funds for a noble cause?
A559 : Even when there is a noble cause, raising
funds for it must conform to Islamic principles. The principles that
“the end justifies the means” is simply unacceptable. If we want to
serve a noble cause, we must do so by appropriate means. When people
buy lottery tickets, what is the aim behind this purchase? It is
clearly to win the jackpot or a high prize. In other words, a person
may be willing to pay SR. 100 just to have a chance of winning a prize
of, say, SR. 100,000. If he wins it, then he is actually getting 1,000
Riyals for each Riyal he had spent. That is a great gain by human
standards. It is certainly to make such gains, or to win such prizes,
that people buy lottery tickets. Little do they think of the cause for
which a lottery is organized. On the other hand, governments organize
national lotteries in order to raise funds, which they may use for
financing public projects or some other government business.
Governments certainly raise large amounts of money in this way. They
normally allocate about 30 percent for prices and around 25 percent for
the administration and expenditure, while the remainder goes to finance
its projects. People part with their money knowing that they have
little or no chance of landing a major prize or hitting the jackpot.
But it is to satisfy their dreams of sudden wealth that they are
prepared to buy such worthless tickets. There is no doubt that such an
exercise is forbidden in Islam. It is forbidden for a government to
organize it and forbidden for individuals to buy lottery tickets. The
reason is that, for the major part, this exercise lures people and
offers them next to nothing. If raffles are organized on the same
lines, then the same verdict of prohibition applies. However, we can
make a distinction here. Suppose a charitable association organizes a
dinner or a party and fixes a high price for the tickets. Suppose also
that the actual cost of the dinner or the party is SR. 50 per person,
while the charitable organization fixes a price of, say, SR. 200.
People nete forward and buy those tickets, knowing that they are
actually helping the cause for which that charity works, but they are
getting an outing in the bargain. They do not expect anything more for
their money. They are happy to do so because they want to help the
charity. Suppose that the charity organizes a draw offering some
prizes which it received from netpanies or other patrons. It uses the
tickets sold for that party in the draw. They make the draw and offer
the prizes to those whose ticket netes out. That is permissible because
no one was expecting such prizes. They only paid [willingly a high
price] for the dinner and got what they paid for.
Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News – Jeddah )