TAMPA, FL -- How would you like to have the chance to own a gorgeous, brand new South Tampa mansion for 50 bucks?
Or an upscale home in Wesley Chapel's Seven Oaks community for 100 dollars?
It's the newest fad people are using to beat the slumping real estate market and get out from underneath their mortgages. Homes raffles. Sell enough tickets to pay off the house, the winner gets a home for a bargain and the proceeds are supposed to go to charity!
But we've discovered a number of perhaps well-intentioned home owners raffling off their houses may in fact be breaking the state's gambling laws, and the charities that are supposed to be helped may not get a dime.
WATCH: Click here to see our investigationCharles and Irene Potthast thought raffling off their $427,000 second home in Wesley Chapel was an ingenious way of getting rid of the property which they bought as an investment but now can't afford.
"We bought in there initially with the hopes of reselling the house prior to the bust in the real estate market but as things turned out, by the time we settled on the house, the real estate market was on a decline," Charles Potthast says.
But according to Chapter 849 of the Florida state statutes, only religious organizations or federally recognized charities can legally run a raffle. So, the Potthast's formed their own.
"It was called the 'Irene Foundation' because my wife at the time was diagnosed with cancer," Charles said.
The problem is that while the couple told us they are a federally recognized 501c3 charitable organization, according to a letter we received from the IRS, they are not!
"The Irene Foundation," the IRS tells us, "has not filed and has not been recognized as a tax exempt organization."
No only that, while the foundation's website says profits from the raffle will go to the Moffitt Cancer Center, according to a letter we've obtained, Moffitt turned them down "due to numerous legalities with both real estate transactions and strict laws governing raffle drawings for non-profits."
We went to Tallahassee to talk to Terry McElroy of the Florida Department of Agriculture and consumer services.
"Certain organizations can hold raffles. But if they cross the line, they possibly come close to skirting the gambling law," McElroy said.
So what is the state doing about it? Not much. The Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services says it's a matter for the state's attorney.
Several state attorney office's we spoke with say it's a matter for local police or the sheriff, but that may be about to change.
st. Petersburg state representative Janet Long is on the house committee overseeing the gambling industry and she's particularly concerned the charities that are suppose to be helped will actually be hurt.
"I'm worried about the organizations, the 501c3s, the legitimate ones that are really anticipating a windfall for example from the sale of one of these properties," Long says.
But in the meantime the home raffles continue here in Florida with little oversight.
Builder Ed James is raffling off a luxury home he built in south Tampa because it hasn't fetched its nearly million dollar asking price.
He intends to give any profits from the raffle after he recovers the costs of building the home to the "Wounded Warrior Project."
And if he doesn't sell about 18,000 tickets at $50 a piece, he's going to cancel the raffle.
"We will refund the money minus the cost of the ticket collections," James says.
Unfortunately for Ed James, that too would be a problem. State law says you can't cancel a drawing because you don't sell enough tickets.
And according to Florida law, statute violations are considered "a deceptive and unfair trade practice and punishable by fines."
