What is the ruling on prizes offered by commercial establishments, and the ruling on participating in them?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
Prizes based on luck have become widespread in these days to encourage people to buy. This is not a risk. If that is the case, should one alert the competent authorities?
The Shaykh:
One may have seen the warning more than once, but one must follow up on it, and Allah willing; because prizes that involve risk involve gambling, which is not permissible. As for a known prize that involves no risk and no gambling, there is nothing wrong with it if the shop owner says, “I sell such and such and such for such and such, and for whoever buys from me twice or three times, I will add something or subtract something,” a known amount. There is no gambling in this. But if he makes it by numbers, such as “whoever gets number such and such gets such and such, and whoever gets number such and such gets such and such,” that is the risk, and that is the gambling. Yes.
The questioner:
The other is the giver.
The Shaykh:
They are all partners in the gambling. Yes.
Prizes based on luck have become widespread in these days to encourage people to buy. This is not a risk. If that is the case, should one alert the competent authorities?
The Shaykh:
One may have seen the warning more than once, but one must follow up on it, and Allah willing; because prizes that involve risk involve gambling, which is not permissible. As for a known prize that involves no risk and no gambling, there is nothing wrong with it if the shop owner says, “I sell such and such and such for such and such, and for whoever buys from me twice or three times, I will add something or subtract something,” a known amount. There is no gambling in this. But if he makes it by numbers, such as “whoever gets number such and such gets such and such, and whoever gets number such and such gets such and such,” that is the risk, and that is the gambling. Yes.
The questioner:
The other is the giver.
The Shaykh:
They are all partners in the gambling. Yes.
Source
قناة «فضيلة الشيخ ابن باز Alsheikh Binbaz»، 366 ما حكم الجوائز التي ترصدها المحلات التجارية وحكم الاشتراك فيها؟ للإمام ابن باز — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.