/lounge/ - Lounge

I have a personal rule: I do not allow myself to gamble. Particularly, any sort of unskilled games like the lottery or slot machines. I don't trust myself with the "freedom" to gamble. That being said, I would play (low-stakes) skilled games—such as card games like poker—should the opportunity ever arise. (It hasn't.)
I recently encountered a conundrum which has challenged this "code:" raffles. Last Christmas, my relative gifted me a package of Fallout-themed sodas. Upon opening my first bottle, I noticed a blue star on the inner side of the cap. Any Fallout player knows that these blue stars are valuable, and I immediately scanned the QR code to learn more. I discovered that I won a ticket for a raffle. I knew I had no chance to win, but I debated all-day whether to enter the raffle. This is a slippery-slope, I reasoned. If I allow myself to do this, I can never purchase a package of this brand of soda without being ever-so-slightly biased by the raffle. In essence, this is gambling with extra steps. Eventually, I decided that I hadn't purchased the sodas myself, and—even if I had—I would not have purchased those with the raffle in mind. So, I entered the raffle.
After doing further research, I discovered that the raffle is limited to one entry-per-person, not one-per-ticket. So, I guess it's not quite gambling. Still, I'm left with the same conundrum: When do raffle tickets become gambling? What is the line between a raffle ticket and a lottery ticket?