can you sell raffle tickets to only specific people?

Question

we want to sell raffle tickets to our customers. Is there some kind of law that would prevent that in the state of Ga.

We would not discriminate according to race as we have welcome all customers. This raffle would be for any of our customers regardless of race or origin.

Answer 1

If you are a private company (or individual), then you can choose to do business with whoever you want. If you want to limit tickets to your customers, then you can do so.

The only issue might be if you did not allow a particular race to be customers, or otherwise discriminated in the lottery based on race. That would run afoul of 13th Amendment protections. But absent racial discrimination, have at it.

Answer 2

Individuals and private companies can choose to enter into a contractual agreement with anybody of their choosing. Unless specified otherwise, an offer is not an offer to the world. As such, I could offer to sell my car to you for x amount of dollars. It then wouldn't mean that I would have to offer to sell my car to someone else at the same price. The same goes for raffle tickets.

However this would be illegal if you discriminated against a group of people. For instance if you only sold tickets to white people, people of other races could complain and have possible legal recourse for discrimination and vice-versa. Same goes for religion, gender, age (unless the raffle is age specific) and so on. If the raffle is only intended for customers, then you cannot be forced to sell them to employees or anyone else.

Answer 3

This is a matter of local law. Raffles are ofteh very strictly regulated, and there may be a requirement of a special license in a given state. Generally speaking, people who hold raffles want to sell as many tickets as possible.

In Pennsylvania, organizations such as volunteer fire companies, veterans organizations, and the like must have a "Small Games of Chance" license in order to sell raffle tickets.

Georgia law §16-12-22.1 requires any entity performing a raffle to obtain a permit from the Sheriff's Office of the county in which it is located. The only entities permitted to operate a raffle are nonprofit, tax-exempt churches, schools, civic organizations, or related support groups; nonprofit organizations qualified under §501(c) of the Internal Revenue Code, as amended; or bona fide nonprofit organizations approved by the sheriff.

http://www.state.ga.us/cgi-bin/pub/ocode/ocgsearch?docname=OCode/G/16/12/22.1&highlight=raffles