Hello,

I am writing this regarding the Palos Verdes Art Center Dream House Raffle. I am deeply concerned with the integrity and validity of this raffle and I want to bring these details to the light. This raffle is being primarily advertised as a dream house raffle but to my understanding the dream house or the 5million dollar grand prize is not being awarded every single year as it is heavily being advertised. In fact, out of the 20 years of running this dream house raffle a dream home has only been given away a total of two times. If and when this home is awarded the winner is also required to pay all of the closing costs on the house,taxes etc on the home before they are able to claim ownership of it. This year's dream home is worth over 5 million dollars and the taxes on a house worth this amount of money we all know your average person cannot afford. In addition to that, according to the rules of this competition, if the ticket threshold is not met of a whopping 60,000 tickets needing to be sold the house that they advertise or the 5million dollars is not given away at all. This raffle seems oddly similar to other "dream house" raffles such as the San Francisco dream house raffle,Mile High Raffle etc. These two raffles have been publicly scrutinized and regarded even by some as scams masquerading as charity raffles due to the fact that they are not giving away what they advertise. Some also say that they aren't scams just highly unregulated by the law. But, after receiving negative feedback some of these charity raffles have actually taken proper actions to alter their terms and conditions drastically to reflect a more moral and honest competition that actually results in a dream home being given away every single year as advertised without all of the sneaky fine print. It is my goal and desire for the Palos Verdes dream house raffle and Palos Verdes Art Center to do the same. 

I  am questioning the intention of the Palos Verdes Art Center Dream House raffle because after doing some research on other similar Dream house raffles it seems like they definitely benefit the most financially from not meeting the threshold and giving the grand prize dream house away. Instead, they keep the proceeds made and it seems like the house usually benefits in some way from the publicity of the raffle and is sometimes rented out constantly generating more money. I do not know at all if this is the case with the Palos Verdes dream house raffle but I do know that last year's dream house is listed online and is available to rent for $19,800/month. I believe that if people want to donate their money to the Palos Verdes art center they should do so from their own personal desire to and not from a false hope of winning a dream house that you #1 probably won't get and #2 even if you do get it, you will also actually owe several hundreds of thousands of dollars on your "Grand Prize" before being allowed to claim it along with other terms and conditions that are not primarily advertised.

*On the website https://cadreamraffle.com/ they state that they have held this dream house competition for 20 years and have only given away the grand prize a total of 7 times. And of those 7 times only TWO of those winners have gotten the dream house. So out of 20 years of holding dream house raffles only TWO Dream houses have ever been given away*

Charity raffles are supposed to be good and positive but the way you go about obtaining these funds can say alot about your organization. The Palos Verdes art center has a positive reputation and I am in no way trying to tarnish the good that is done here but me and others also think that to raise these funds based on any level of deception or potential bait and switch tactics is simply not morally correct. I want to know why every year the palos verdes art center allows and partakes in the advertisement of a chance at winning a dream house when they can see consistently from the statistics of their previous raffles that the likelihood of this happening is very small. The other prizes of lesser value that are consistently being given away should be the primary advertisement. I feel that they are intentionally misleading people into investing their money into this raffle and I believe that all parties involved with this should hold themselves and their organizations to much higher standards. 

Please like and share and sign this petition https://chng.it/g8QmfQSqPb if you agree and want The Palos Verdes Dream House Raffle / The Palos Verdes Art Center to halt this year's raffle until they alter their terms and conditions to reflect what is just and fair and what they are primarily advertising every year which is giving away a Dream home or 5,000,000.00 to a lucky winner who purchases a $150 raffle ticket. 

Here are the things that I believe need to change:

1. If your going to advertise yourself as a Dream house Raffle you need to give away a Dream House. The ticket threshold amount should be lowered so that they can reasonably award the house that they are advertising every single year or the grand prize of 5,000,000.00 

2. The closing costs on the home should not be required to be paid on behalf of the winner.

3. All taxes at least for the first year should be covered and not be a burden upon the winner of the home. 

5. The 5million dollars if requested in lieu of the home, should not be required to be disbursed over a period of 25years! 

6. The grand prize winner should be allowed not just TWO DAYS to decide but at least 1 month to have adequate time to seek legal and tax advice as advised on the dreamraffle website to be able to make an informed decision between accepting the home or the money. 

7. A raffle ticket tally of the previous years should be made public so that ticket buyers can easily determine whether or not they want to buy a ticket based on the real stats. 

8. Most people are not rich. Change the terms of your raffle or offer and advertise a realistic house that people actually have a real chance at affording and keeping. 

The advertisement on their website claims :

"A captivating Mediterranean-style villa majestically perched atop Malaga Cove or $5,000,000 is just a $150 raffle ticket away for the lucky winner of the 2024 Palos Verdes Dream House Raffle"

This is either false advertising or just extremely misleading. Please read the find print and make an informed decision before purchasing your ticket.

*I am not at all claiming any of this information as fact but from my own opinion of what I have taken the time to research*

News Reports of other Dream house raffles exposed: 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=e9yXq9fuHMo&list=LL&index=1&pp=gAQBiAQB

https://youtu.be/NF5mZ1djI1o?feature=shared

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12544359/amp/Teacher-thought-won-2m-mansion-slams-competition-scam.html

https://patch.com/missouri/kirkwood/bp--bbb-raises-concerns-about-dream-house-charity-raffle

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/watchdog/sd-fi-dream-house-20180318-story.html

 

Thank you!