Is it wrong for a Mormon to buy a raffle ticket?

Question

Dear Gramps,

Is there any difference between buying a raffle ticket and a lottery ticket? I know we are told not to gamble, what has been said by General Authorities about raffles?

Carol

Answer

Dear Carol,

Elder Bruce R. McConkie has made the following statement with respect to raffles:

“Raffles are a form of lottery and as such are gambling. Ordinarily raffling practices call for a number of persons to pay, in shares, the value or assumed value of something, and then to determine by chance which one shall have it. President Joseph F. Smith counseled: “No kind of chance game, guessing contest, or raffling device can be approved in any entertainment under the auspices of our church organizations” (Mormon Doctrine, p.617).

Also, we find in James R. Clark’s, Messages of the First Presidency, Vol.4, p.186 – p.187, that

these instructions state clearly the ruling of the Church on all forms of gambling including raffles, offering prizes to winners in guessing contests, etc. The instructions are given here that it would be better to let Relief Society quilts, for example, rot on the shelves rather than dispose of them by games of chance including raffling. The good intention or the good purpose or cause does not justify questionable means of raising Church revenue. Good ends do not justify questionable means.

Gramps