Ruling on entering draws and lotteries
Question

What is the ruling on entering draws and lotteries?
Praise be to Allah.Draws and lotteries are kinds of gambling in which the participant pays money in return for nothing tangible or of real value – such as a ticket for five dollars – and he is given a number that is entered into a draw for high value cash prizes, such as one million dollars. Then the contestant will either be a winner, if he wins the prize, or he will be a loser if he does not win anything. This is the essence of gambling.
Based on that, taking part in such draws is definitively haraam, and the money that is given for those haraam prizes is haraam and impure wealth.
In their adverts for these haraam draws it says:
“You will ask whether these words make sense or are true? And we will tell you: yes, they do make sense and they are true, and this is a creative way of helping one another! We will never pay you anything from our own pockets; rather you are the ones who will pay everything, and each of you will help the other by buying tickets, so that in the end you will have been a part of this creative way of helping one another, which will continue to flow smoothly so that you can all fulfil your dreams, one after another.”
They also say:
“You may also ask: I am going to win one thousand dollars, then one million dollars, so what do you gain from that? Or are you doing this only as an act of charity?
Our answer is: even though helping one another is an ancient idea, as ancient as humanity, and is supported by all religions, we will also get some returns so long as the participants continue to buy tickets, because from each participant we will receive five dollars in return for our efforts and other services, and for running the draw, in addition to advertising and other things which result from the success and continuation of this program. In other words, we will gain something and you will also gain something. So why shouldn’t we be keen to keep the program running and make sure that it is successful? Moreover, this idea is ours, and we are putting all our efforts and technical expertise into making sure that everything runs smoothly, so as to achieve success.”
This is deceit and cheating, because they call gambling “helping one another” even though in reality it is gambling which is haraam, and it has nothing to do with helping one another at all; rather it is consuming people’s wealth unlawfully.
For more information, please see the answers to questions no. 6476 and 20993 .