The Ruling on Satellite Competitions via Text Messages

Question:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. He says: What is the ruling on participating in some of the competitions held on some satellite channels, where they display large sums of money as prizes, and all you have to do is send them a text message several times? Is this gambling?

Answer:
This is gambling; this is the very essence of gambling, because you pay some money and take more than what you paid. You might pay five riyals and then take a million or two million. This is consuming wealth unjustly. This is gambling. And they profit from it: they take five from you, and five from the second person, and five from the thousandth person. People in the thousands gather, and a large amount of money accumulates with them. They take a little from it and give it to the winner, as they claim. So they are the winners from the gambling, and may Allah protect us from that. Yes.