Gambling - Whats the limit?

I want to start by apologising. I had a really massive topic I wanted to blog about following this mornings meeting, but I had a long talk after the meeting with someone I trust and I have decided to hold off on it for a while. I have lot to think about following that discussion, and most of it too personal for here. So instead I am blogging about something rather different to the usual. (And it may seem stupid and trivial).

My brother and his girlfriend are currently collecting the McDonalds monopoly stickers, and seem to be doing relatively well. For those of you who are not aware of McDonalds latest marketing ploy, they have created a makeshift monopoly board, and their drinks (and other products) have pull off tabs on them, which are the various properties you find on a monopoly board. The idea is that you collect as many of these properties as you can. If you complete a set, (e.g. you get both greens) then you have a chance of winning a variety of prizes.

Rowan and Naomi have one of the greens and are waiting for Bond Street to appear. McDonalds will give away £100000 to three people who manage to get both of the greens. Clearly this is not a guarunteed prize. The chances are obviously very slim. Anyway, they were telling me tonight that they had two 'Park Lane's'. Park Lane is a purple and so is a good one to have (in theory) and so I made the suggestion, (although it was all meant to be just a bit of fun), of puting it on ebay. It seems other people had this idea too.

Quite a few people are selling these tiny little tokens on ebay. We found someone selling 'Bond Street' for £2. (With free postage). Now £2 for a token might seem steep, but Ro pointed out that you would pay more than that for a McDonalds meal. We were laughing saying maybe we should do it, until it was pointed out to us that this was actually gambling. I agreed, (reluctantly) that actually yes, it was gambling, but others I spoke to did not. So me being me, I looked up the definition:

"Gambling (or betting) is any behavior involving risking money or valuables (making a wager or placing a stake) on the outcome of a game, contest, or other event in which the outcome of that activity depends partially or totally upon chance or upon one's ability to do something."www.wikipedia.org

So is buying 'Bond Street' on ebay gambling? Does it risk money? Well - yes I suppose so, although buying something like that doesn't feel like much of a risk. Maybe because £2 doesn't seem that valuable these days. But, in theory, it is still risking money, however small the amount is. Is it the outcome of a game? Yes. Is it based on chance? Yes! So I guess in theory it is gambling.

Naomi says: To get Bond Street without buying it on ebay, I would have to spend lots of money on McDonalds before hand. Therefore, surely by using ebay we are risking less money, (and reducing our risk of childhood obesity).

However, the point remains that this is gambling. But how far do you take this concept? Would buying McDonalds and then using the token to try to win money be gambling? No in theory because you are not risking money - you are spending money on food and the token just happens to come as a 'free extra'. But what if you bought a McDonalds because of the token. Surely then you would be buying the token, and the meal would come as a free extra. In that case, buying the McDonalds would be gambling. Would people say that was wrong? How far do you take it. How lenient do you become before you draw a line? Is it a slippery slope? Should we therefore reject involvement in all such competitions? Would you send off a completed crossword puzzle for a competition for example? Surely you are risking the price of a stamp?

I know it may sound like a silly point to be thinking so much about, but don't you think its right that we should know where to draw the line? What do you think? Is it gambling? What would you do?

If anyone has a bond street token that they don't mind giving away, we would much appreciate it. It would save the hassle of trying to be morally right, without being legalistic and ridiculous!