Disney Star Skai Jackson Defends Taking $5 From Fans For Raffle: 'I Do Not Need Money'

Is Skai Jackson having money problems?? If not, she could have fooled her followers…

If you follow the former Disney Channel star on social media, you may have recently seen a raffle she put up for fans to enter for a chance to win an Apple MacBook Air. Fun, but… there was a catch. Participants had to cough up $5 each in order to enter. And they just weren’t having it.

Apparently, Skai used the raised funds to purchase the laptop, which would then go to the winner selected from the raffle. But the thing is that’s not usually how celeb raffles are done. Celebs get gifted random stuff, and they sometimes pass items along to followers to promote them. Maybe they get paid by the company if their promotion is worth it — like if you have Selena Gomez IG numbers. But they don’t collect money from the fans.

The discrepancy left many social media users confused. Collecting money for a prize makes this more like a lottery. And states profit A LOT from lotteries. It had fans concerned over the raffle’s legitimacy, as it’s not exactly clear how many people funded the raffle. To put things into perspective, a new MacBook Air goes for about $1,200, according to Apple’s website. At a raffle fee of five bucks a pop, that would mean that just 240 fans would need to enter in order to fund the purchase… and Skai currently has 8.6 million followers on Instagram.

Was Skai running a lottery to make money off her fans??

After a wave of suspicion and backlash, the Jessie star took to TikTok to address fans’ concerns. She defended herself in a dismissive video, arguing:

“It is not that serious for a damn $5. It is called a raffle. I don’t know if you guys have been to school before, but I know I’ve been to school, and we used to have raffles all the time where… you put it $5, $2, whatever, and you get a prize. Like, people do raffles all the time.”

Um, yeah. Schools, like states with lotteries, don’t do raffles for fun. They do them as fundraisers. They use the extra money to pay for classroom materials, stuff like that. And everyone knows that and is OK with it because it’s charity. A TV star isn’t charity.

What about any potential leftover money? She explained:

“The money goes towards the prize, and then like I said, if there’s anything left over, I’m doing a second giveaway soon, so that’s what it’s going towards.”

Another “giveaway.” Some time soon. Hmm… Still pretty shady, not gonna lie.

She added, blasting the speculation she was profiting:

“I do not need money. Me, personally, I do not need money, and I’m not saying this like I’m a — in a bragging way or anything like that, or in a mean way. I’m just letting you guys know, I do not personally need money. Like I am very fine in my life. I don’t need — I don’t need money.”

Ch-ch-check out the full clip, shared by Pop Crave on Twitter (below):

Disney Channel star Skai Jackson is being criticized for asking her fans to send her $5 “for a chance to win a MacBook.” pic.twitter.com/6GZ7kEwX5p

— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) July 8, 2023

She later revealed that a winner had been selected, which you can see (below):

Thank you sooooo much!!! ????❤️ https://t.co/m2JJtKa1bZ

— leijahh ???? (@itsleijah) July 8, 2023

Still, fans weren’t exactly sold. One user wrote:

“So basically all of Skai’s fans pooled their money together to buy 1 fan a Mac? A celebrity is supposed to buy it & the money given goes to a charity.”

Another wrote:

“She claims she doesn’t need the money, so then why is she charging for entry? This not weird to y’all?”

A third pointed out her former Disney days, and the wealth she presumably accrued from the time:

“Guess that Disney check finally ran out.”

Yikes. See more reactions (below):

Skai Jackson’s fans asking her why she’s doing a $5 macbook raffle pic.twitter.com/Uwcs3OdmnU

— Liv (@itstilliv) July 9, 2023

Skai Jackson after she gives the mac book to her homegworl and took 5 dollars from 100,000 people pic.twitter.com/iDpvWhbWxj

— HART°????♡???? °???? (@HartDaScientist) July 9, 2023