[geeks] swoopo: legal gambling? (revisited)

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

On Fri, Jan 23, 2009 at 01:40:20AM -0500, Shannon Hendrix wrote:
>Reading a little more detail about swooopo.com.
>
>It's probably not a scam, but it might well be fraud.
>
>Or, it could be considered unlicensed gambling.
>
>I'm kind of amazed it isn't a bit more newsworthy, because I'm pretty  
>sure at least some states would consider it a gambling house or a  
>numbers house in disguise.
>
>Yeah, you could end up getting something cheap, but only if a lot of  
>other people lose big.

I'm not sure it's really fraud. If they tell you everything in the end it
may just be buyer stupidity, not fraud.

For example, I'm looking at a Nikon D90 with 18-105mm lens camera outfit. 

Note this was a "penny auction" so the price went up 1 cent per bid.

Worth up to:  		$1,299.95
Placed bids (1131): 	$848.25
FreeBids (0): 		$0.00
Final price: 		$34.70
Savings: 		$417.00

So the bidders paid $848.25 for the privledge of bidding. The winner
paid $34.70 plus the cost of his bids and $4.90 in shipping.

B&H sells the exact same package for $1169.95. So in the end, if someone had
bid all the bids, they would have saved $300 over the price of the camera from
B&H. Since they did not, they paid less. However a lot of people (possibly as
many as 1130) paid to bid and got nothing.

As for illegal gambling, they may be in a place where gambling is legal.
When you sign up, you make the claim you can legally participarte in their
"auctions", so the onus is on you, not them.

Geoff.

-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm at mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM