State nixes couple's planned Pike County house raffle

MILFORD — Brian and Kelly Jackson said they weren’t having much luck selling their $800,000 home, so they hit on a plan — why not raffle it off? Because that would be illegal, the state replied. The Associated Press reported that the Jacksons developed a Web site for the home and two other properties in Quakertown and Lansdale. The site went up July 27 allowing people to buy raffle tickets for the homes, which range from $265,000 to $800,000. The couple planned to sell 2,500 $100 tickets for the Lansdale home and hoped to sell a combined 7,200 tickets at $200 each for the two other homes. The winner would pay taxes and transfer fees, but the raffle would cover the mortgage payment and also provide $2 from each ticket to charity. Brian Jackson said thousands responded, and he estimated that they would have made about $80,000 to $90,000 if all the houses were raffled off. ``This wasn’t a get-rich-quick scheme,’’ he said. ``It was just a different take on real estate.’’ The state, however, said the site violated the Small Games of Chance Act and constituted illegal gambling. ``Under Pennsylvania law, you can’t just decide, ‘I’m going into the raffle business,’’’ said Nils Frederiksen, deputy press secretary for Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett. The office contacted Jackson last week and advised him to shut down the site before civil charges were filed. Jackson shut the site down a day later and returned the raffle ticket money. But he said he might restart the site with the winner being decided by some type of contest, which would not be considered gambling.