I recently heard about another Finnish "pay-to-bid" website with a slightly different scheme. You pay the website money to place a bid and whoever places the LOWEST bid *that no other bidder has placed* wins the auction.
So for example, I could bid 78p on a PS3 and so long as no one else bids that amount (it doesn't tell you what the current lowest bid is) and there is no single bid lower than that, I win the PS3.
Of course, it goes by the idea that people are all frantically bidding on whatever amount they can think of in order to find the one low amount that no one else would think of. So again it's very much like gambling in the same way this site is, but it's not legally classified as gambling because of the way it is set up. Just that whoever doesn't win the item ends up spending a LOT of money with no reward.
Very devious eh?
So for example, I could bid 78p on a PS3 and so long as no one else bids that amount (it doesn't tell you what the current lowest bid is) and there is no single bid lower than that, I win the PS3.
Of course, it goes by the idea that people are all frantically bidding on whatever amount they can think of in order to find the one low amount that no one else would think of. So again it's very much like gambling in the same way this site is, but it's not legally classified as gambling because of the way it is set up. Just that whoever doesn't win the item ends up spending a LOT of money with no reward.
Very devious eh?