[GenCon] Fastlane Raffle?

[Lxndr]

I've been kicking this idea around in my mind, and have even allocated some budget to the concept and found a local Indianapolis retailer that could help meet my needs (even if it's just providing a location for a retail purchase).  

Anyway, what I want to ask is a two-pronged question:

1.  Does this sound, in general, like a good idea?

and...

2.  Does this sound like something that'd be too much trouble in the "Forge 2004" booth?

Hmm.  Was there anything else I wanted to add?  Oh yeah, the idea.  None of y'all are telepaths, are you?

Purchase a roulette wheel set specifically for the convention, and use it to run all the various demos and the like.  During that time, sell raffle tickets - one free with a purchase of Fastlane, additional tickets for, I dunno, a buck each.  At the end of the convention, draw a ticket.  Winner gets the (now slightly used) roulette wheel.

The idea that brought all this on was pondering transportation of the wheel and alternatives to shipping it both ways (which at any reasonably-guaranteed price and time, is fairly expensive).  Yes, there's an option for the game using six-sided dice, but I'd prefer to give potential players a more in-depth Fastlane experience.

Anyway, I first looked into renting a wheel, but I can't seem to find prices that don't include renting a whole table - and are generally rather high.  But purchasing a nice, personal-sized roulette wheel from a local store isn't all that expensive.  And I don't want to end up with TWO wheels (one is plenty) so, I thought, why not give it away?  And from there, the raffle idea was born.

So, once again:

1.  Good idea?  If not, why not?
2.  Feasible to try in the Forge Booth this year?  If not, why not?

If either one of those is a convincing 'no', I'll go back to the drawing board.

[Keith Senkowski]

If you are worried about shipping couldn't you get one of the smaller wheels.  I did a quick search on amazon and found this http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000068V1Z/qid=1084396949/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-5336627-3884939?v=glance&spage=C038&sterm=roulette_wheel&stterm=roulette_wheels">here

Keith

[Bob McNamee]

Have them buy a 'roullette wheel number' and write it down, when all the numbers are filled up or you hit your time limit...then  its time to give it away...spin the roullette wheel... until you hit a number that someone has picked.

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

I think a roulette wheel as well as a raffle or wheel-based "who gets it" is a neat idea.

Just a sudden thought, though ... how noisy is the small-sized wheel you'd be planning to use?

Best,
Ron

[Mike Holmes]

Uh, I don't know about Indianapolis, but where I'm from, and in many places what you're doing constitutes gambling. To make it legal, you'd have to have a "no purchase neccessary" clause, meaing that if people asked you'd have to give them free tickets. That, or declare yourself a non-profit somehow. :-)

Sorry to rain.

Mike

[Lxndr]

Sigh.  Damn over-regulatory governmental statues, making something illegal (or mostly illegal) for no good reason.  It hadn't occurred to me that it'd fall under gambling statues (which I disagree with anyway) but when I looked, sure enough, yup, it is.  And for Indiana in particular, I have to be a non-profit operating within Indiana's borders for at least five years prior to getting a license to run one.

Bah.  And is it obvious I sort of have Libertarian leanings?

The legal options I have are (a) to make it into some sort of "skill contest" instead of "chance contest" - which doesn't make any sense, or (b) to, yes, have a "no purchase necessary" alternative.  Which means likely less income, but it means I'll still get to hand off the wheel to someone else at the end of the convention.  Hrm.

Ron>  The wheel I currently own (16 inches in diameter) isn't overly loud, I don't believe; but then, I'm probably not the one to ask, since I have bizarre intermittent hearing problems (enough that I watch all my TV with the captioning on).  It's about as loud as the average roulete wheel, I suppose.  I plan on buying a similar sized wheel for the raffle, if I have one.

If I don't have the raffle, I'll probably buy a smaller (9-10 inch) wheel, dub it the "convention wheel" and, well, it'll probably be smaller than the 16 incher, however loud that is.