Would paying to bid for money prizes be considered lottery?

If you want to sell money at a profit, buy a bank.

There it’s callled “a loan.”

I believe it would. I’ve also wondered about a “contest” with my local newspaper, where you answer questions for points and then trade the points for chances to win a valuable prize.

I don’t know. As it is, sites like beezid.com. more like raffles than legitimate auctions. In a regular auction, a live one or an online auction like eBay, you bid on items but only pay if you win the auction, then you pay for the actual item. With Beezid you pay, I think 70 cents for a bid, so each time you “bid” on something, it costs you 70 cents. That seems more like a raffle, where you buy a ticket and are being sold only the chance to win something. I guess, if the product on Beezid was money, it would be more like a lottery.

It appears that paying money to take a chance on anything is gambling.

You drop a dollar into a slot machine hoping to win the jackpot, so what’s the difference.

Also, who is profiting from the selling of the prizes?

This strongly suggests knocking on the door to paramutual betting.

@john65pennington do you know the site beezid? Its not considered to be gambling, although i definitely would consider it gambling. they profit by selling the bids. For example, I am auctioning 20 dollars, if 10 people bid different amounts, and the winning bid is 15 dollars, the auctioneer makes 25 dollars, selling each bid for a dollar and earning the 15 from the bidder.