Tampa Bay Buccaneers Raffle for Charity Hits Sore Spot

By: Russell Potvin, April 10, 2014

Something fairly new in the NFL is the addition of 50/50 raffles during the games. The idea is that tickets are purchased for a set price. Half of the proceeds go to some sort of charity, and the other half goes to the lucky winner of the drawing. This is a fun way for the fans to contribute to charity while getting a chance to win something for themselves. With advances in technology and with Canada taking the lead on offering these types of deals at their own sporting events, it's made its way into the United States in a pretty big way.

Generally speaking, Canadians have had this type of event going on in their sports games for quite a while. The general belief is that it spread into the United States because of hockey, and then other sports leagues like the NFL picked it up. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are one great example of an American football team that is putting on these raffles, and it's pretty clear that they got the idea from the hockey team the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Back in the day, raffles like this weren't as popular because they were more difficult to organize and keep up with. People would have to put their name and phone number on the back of a ticket, and not everyone is comfortable doing that. Now, people can buy these raffle tickets electronically which has drastically increased the number of people who are interested in playing. We believe this increase comes from being able to see how many other people are buying tickets, how much the people stand to win and the security of your information that's involved.

As is the case with any type of betting, there are some people who have a problem with this type of raffle. Sports leagues in the United States are often trying to keep gambling away from the games, and these raffles are being seen as sending a mixed message about that. There's no denying that sports leagues like the NFL and NHL are starting to embrace different types of gambling more than ever before, but we'll just have to wait and see how far that goes.