The Ruling on Prizes Announced by Commercial Establishments

The questioner:
The Shaykh said, may Allah protect him, what is the ruling on what some commercial establishments do? They give a specific quantity to everyone who buys from them, and then whoever hits a specific number on their end takes a prize. And if it is not permissible, what is the ruling if one of them took a share from him? He said: If he takes three, and if he gets the prize, let him take it.

The Shaykh:
All of this is consuming wealth unlawfully. It is due to the greed of the shop owners, so that they draw customers to them because of these prizes. And if this is by number and drawing, this is gambling.
The number and the drawing—your luck, your portion, this one, that portion—this is gambling, and may Allah protect us from it. This is not permissible. Fatwas have been issued by the Council of Senior Scholars and by the Committee, the Ifta Committee, that this is not permissible, that it is gambling, and that it is harmful to people and to the shop owners. Because if they did not set up prizes, people would not go to them, so they would be harmed. Are they not forced to set up prizes?
And he is not pleased with this and dislikes this. So it is obligatory to prevent this manipulation. It is obligatory to prevent this manipulation and this greed that they are doing. But if it is by drawing, this is clear gambling. This is clear gambling of which there is no doubt. It is maysir (gambling). Yes.

Another questioner:
Approximately.

The Shaykh:
Yes, without value. Your luck, your portion, a number comes out for you, and you take a car.

Another questioner:
Buy.

The Shaykh:
A number comes out, and you have nothing.

Another questioner:
Buy and return.

The Shaykh:
You buy not for the item, you buy for the prize. It is a lesson that there is a car prize, so he goes and buys goods in order to enter a number and have a prize come out. He takes a risk. He might buy goods in which he has no desire at all. This is what they want.

Another questioner:
Like the competitions.

The Shaykh:
All of them are consuming wealth unlawfully. All the competitions are consuming wealth unlawfully. And it is not permissible to take compensation except in what the Shari'ah has permitted in the three things: a sword, a shoe, or a hoof, because these aid in jihad. These are means of jihad. But these prizes that are not for jihad, not for the means of jihad, are consuming people's wealth unlawfully and harming them. And deceiving them. And they buy things that have no value in order to get the prize.
They put a number, for example, on a Pepsi wrapper or a drink wrapper. Whoever finds it gets a car. He goes and buys boxes in case he finds this number. And he has no need for them. He throws them in the street and looks for the wrappers in case he finds this number. All of this is consuming wealth unlawfully. Yes.

The questioner:
And here, Shaykh, you have woken up, and here they are announcing.

The Shaykh:
They put these games in the milk, and likewise in the dairy products, and this is not permissible. Yes.