Good morning all! One of my clients' park committees have asked if they can conduct a raffle for the benefit of the parks. I have referenced 21 O.S. § 1051<https://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/DeliverDocument.asp?CiteID=69564> and I have come to the conclusion that a park committee may not conduct a raffle pursuant to the terms of A. 4. (1) - (8). These subparts of the statute identify some of the qualified organizations that may conduct a lottery. There are several governmental or quasi-governmental entities that are permitted to do so: accredited public schools, fire departments, police departments, and organizations exempt pursuant to 501 (c) of the IRS code. However, a municipality or committee organized by a municipality is not among them. Municipalities are not 501 (c) (3) entities because the city is not formed for the exclusive purposes described in 26 U.S.C. § 501. Even though police departments and fire departments are arms of a municipality, no other "department" of a municipality was identified and no general or catchall description of departments, agencies, or arms of a municipality were included in the statute. This lends me to conclude that only police and fire departments may conduct a raffle. Now a fire department and police department may conduct a raffle, but pursuant to the terms of 21 O.S. § 1051, "the qualified organization" is raising the funds and the "voluntary contributions" are made to the qualified organization in conjunction with issuing the tickets. So, I do not think that a fire department or police department can conduct a raffle for the "benefit" of the park committee. Of course, I may be missing something so I am putting this proposition out there for any assistance that may be offered to assist the committee conduct a raffle. The only potential solution that I see is to conduct a public auction of property that has been declared surplus by the municipality after the appropriate notice has been published. I am concerned though about the city purchasing property to then be auctioned off because to make the purchase of the goods, I am inclined that there must be a need for the municipality to acquire the property. However, I am more confident that people may donate items to a municipality to be auctioned off as surplus. Again, I would like input on this before making a recommendation to my committee. Any ideas? Thanks, Ray [cid:image001.png@01D9B315.FC739A60] Robert Ray Jones, Jr., Director 119 N. Robinson, Suite 1200 Oklahoma City, OK 73102 405-235-7471 | 405-232-3852 (fax) www.lytlesoule.com<http://www.lytlesoule.com> IMPORTANT NOTICE: This transmission is protected by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 18 U.S.C. Sections 2510-2521 and is intended to be delivered only to the named addressee(s). E-mail to clients of this firm presumptively contain privileged and confidential information. E-mail to non-clients are presumptively confidential and may be privileged. The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed. Any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of this information, directly or indirectly, by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you received this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from all computers in which it resides.