Okay, so PayPal has lowered the boom and said, "No more raffles!"
Friends of Ferret Shelters, animal shelter and rescue groups, and
plenty of other charities are left floundering for ways to raise
desperately needed funds without breaking the law.

Why did this happen, and what can we do about it?

The main reason is the Unlawful Internet Gaming Act, passed by
Congress in 2006. This law prohibits financial institutions from
handling transactions to and from Internet gambling sites.

Some in Congress are having second thoughts about this law, which was
rushed through in the last hour of the last day of the session. In
fact Congress recently announced it will not enforce the law until
this summer, at least, giving everyone time to take a fresh look at
the law's impact and ramifications.

Another problem is that in the wake of the federal law, some states,
such as New York, enacted their own, separate laws which prohibit banks
and credit card companies from processing any financial transactions
related to gambling.

Other states, like Washington, expressly forbid ANY online raffles,
period.

The anti-gaming laws are supposedly to protect people from scams,
online and otherwise. To some extent, they do. The fact that the laws
also help protect the states' own gambling revenue sources (lottery,
keno, video poker, dog and horse racing) is purely coincidental, of
course...!

So in the eyes of Congress, a Friends of Ferret Shelters raffle, where
100% of all money raised goes directly to the shelter, is no different
from the casino industry raking in billions of dollars in profits each
year.

Our democratically elected leaders are unable or unwilling to
distinguish between a massive, for-profit gaming operation and an
animal shelter trying to raise a few hundred dollars to survive.

If this bothers you, please contact your state legislators and members
of Congress. Let them know that the 2006 law is having tragic
consequences for small non-profits with very limited resources.

These small organizations do great work on a shoestring, but they have
no voice in politics. Go on and make some noise on their behalf! Now is
the time, when Congress is seriously rethinking its absurd and probably
unconstitutional law.

You can visit this website to learn who your representatives are and
how to contact them:
http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml.

Thank you for helping!

Susann Thiel and Lisa Oestereich
Friends of Ferret Shelters
http://www.shelterfriends.blogspot.com

[Posted in FML 6570]