Raffle rules

These rules apply to every Hit Engine prize draw. The rules for a round are fixed and published before that round opens, and do not change once it is open.

A fuller version of this document, including the draw algorithm written out in full and the complete reason-code table, is at /raffle/rules. Any draw can be recomputed at /raffle/verify. Where the two documents differ in wording they do not differ in substance; this page is the formal statement.

Who can enter

You must be 18 or over. You must have a Stake.com account with a public username — if your profile is on hidden or ghost mode, your bet cannot be verified and cannot be entered. Stake.us is not supported.

Entry by bet requires a bet placed on Stake.com. Stake operates its own age, identity and territory checks, and a qualifying bet cannot exist unless Stake permitted you to place it. The free postal route below carries its own eligibility requirements.

Hit Engine staff and their immediate families may not win a prize.

How a bet qualifies

Each round publishes a multiplier threshold and a minimum stake. A bet qualifies if it was placed on one of the games listed as eligible for that round, at or above the minimum stake, and reached the published multiplier threshold.

Bet size buys nothing. One qualifying bet is one ticket, whatever you staked. A larger stake does not earn more tickets. We tune rounds by raising the minimum stake, never by weighting tickets.

The entry window

Eligibility keys on when you submit, not when you placed the bet. Any qualifying bet may be entered while a round is open, however long ago it was placed. We do this because a bet’s timestamp is not publicly visible, and we will not enforce a rule we cannot check.

Because of that, two limits apply and both are published on every round: a per-user ticket cap, and a total ticket ceiling for the round.

One bet, one entry, ever

A bet reference can be used once, ever — not once per round. If a bet has already been entered into any round, it cannot be entered again.

There is one exception, and it exists to stop people burning other players’ bets. Where an entry fails for a reason that is about us or the round rather than about the bet, the bet is released and can be entered again later:

• our verification was unavailable
• you had already reached the per-user cap
• the round had reached its ticket ceiling
• the Stake profile was hidden at the time of checking

Where an entry fails for a reason that is a permanent fact about the bet, it is consumed and cannot be re-entered:

• the multiplier was below the round’s threshold
• the bet was on a game not listed as eligible for that round
• the bet was not on a Hit Engine game
• the bet was on Stake.us

Anyone may submit any public bet reference. This gains them nothing: the prize is paid to the account that placed the bet, not the account that submitted it.

How entries are checked

Every bet reference is checked by a person. Nothing is verified while a round is open: entries are collected for the whole open window and then checked in one pass after entries close. An entry showing as pending for days is normal and is not a sign that anything is wrong.

The person checking reads the username, the game and the multiplier from Stake’s public bet page and records them. They do not decide whether an entry qualifies — the published thresholds do, applied automatically to what was recorded. Nobody at Hit Engine can accept a bet below the published threshold or exceed a published cap.

If we cannot confirm an entry before the round’s verification period ends, that entry is released, not rejected: the failure is ours, and the bet stays usable in a later round.

Timeline

Every round publishes, before it opens: when it opens, when it closes, the verification period after close during which every submitted bet is checked, the moment the entry list is sealed, the randomness source and the time it becomes available, the draw, and the claim deadline.

Because entries are checked by hand, the verification period is measured in days rather than minutes. Its exact length is published with the round and does not move.

How winners are drawn

Before a round opens we publish a hash of a secret seed to a public, timestamped venue. When the round closes and all checks have finished, we publish the complete, frozen entry list. Only then does the randomness we use become available — it comes from drand, a public randomness beacon we do not control. We then publish the secret seed, and anyone can recompute the result.

The entry list is sealed before the randomness exists. This is what stops anyone, including us, steering the outcome.

We also draw and publish reserves at the same time as winners. If a winner cannot be paid or is disqualified, the next published reserve takes their place. We never re-run a draw.

Every settled round publishes a proof.json containing every input the draw used. You can recheck any draw in your browser at /raffle/verify, or with the command-line verifier at /raffle/verify-draw.mjs — a separate implementation with no dependencies, published so that a result can be checked by something we did not write to agree with us.

Prizes

Prizes are paid as a Stake tip to the account that placed the winning bet. We do not ask for your password, your private keys, or any payment detail, and we never will.

You must claim by the deadline published for the round. After that the prize passes to a reserve. Any tax on a prize is your responsibility.

Void and disqualification

We may void an entry or disqualify an entrant where: the bet does not meet the published rules; the entry was made by automated means at a scale intended to overwhelm the round; the same person enters through multiple Stake accounts; the postal route is abused, including bulk mailings from one address; or the entrant cannot demonstrate control of the Stake account when asked.

Entries are subject to manual review, and we may hold a draw briefly to complete it. A voided winner is replaced by a published reserve.

Contact

Questions about a round, or a dispute about an entry: see the address on Terms.