| No, the key is to eliminate the wager.
People play games of chance for nothing all the time, and it's legal because there is nothing at stake. It's not "gambling" until something is at stake.
There are people who would pay an entry fee to a complex if it allowed them to play for money, but with nothing up front per game.
As for the law and the spirit: all that ultimately matters is the letter, thanks to the concept of impossibility. Wanting something to be a crime that isn't a crime doesn't make it a crime.
Taken together, the Z scheme is much more like pure gambling than charging an entry fee, because the entry fee method doesn't rely on chips or games of skill, and doesn't require you to play. Shoot, you could be there for some other event, e.g, live music or an art display. |