Tossing around the word Fraud a lot. I don't like it. Gamblers Warehouse, they will supply the product. They can do whatever they want with the profit they acquire from the product. If they say they're going to donate 20% on facebook, well they'll donate 20%. Gamblers Warehouse is not a fly by night company. We all know that. You'll often see something on Kickstarters called "kicking it forward" a little promise people make to kick 5% toward other products on KS. KS has no problem with this. Honestly, I trust GW to keep their word much more than I do those many others.
Also, Add-ons and rewards are different beasts entirely. GW can offer whatever they choose as an add-on as long as it's something they can provide. Be it a teddy bear with a pink ribbon on it's ass, or a deck of cards they've already purchased and have sitting in their warehouses. The only people who may have a problem with it is USPCC, who I doubt really care what GW does with the decks they've already purchased from them. Authors can officer previously written work as an Add-on for to their current campaign of an entirely new work. Games Publishers can offer games they've previously made as an Add-on to the game they're currently offering.
Gamblers Warehouse has a very good reputation to me. My opinion is earned through the many dealings I've had with them. Top notch company, solves problems when they arise and supplies what they say they will. They even save decks that should be made, and can't get the funding on KS. There is nothing shady about them.
Two weeks left on this campaign. Back it if you want, don't back it if you don't want. KS is full of contradictions and always will be, people and companies will go by president set by previous campaigns and the machine will keep grinding along.
As was pointed out by PurpleIce, all those examples you gave were about people offering products they produced, created, designed, etc. Gambler's Warehouse did NOT produce or design the current edition of the Pink Ribbon deck.
The first definition of the noun "fraud" is "wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain." I would likely not call this criminal, but I'm not a lawyer and there is indeed wrongful deception taking place which will result in Gambler's Warehouse's financial gain. The legal definition in this country is "A false representation of a matter of fact—whether by words or by conduct, by false or misleading allegations, or by concealment of what should have been disclosed—that deceives and is intended to deceive another so that the individual will act upon it to her or his legal injury." Keeping their charity gift of a portion of their project's income off the project page but posted elsewhere would qualify as "concealment of what should have been disclosed" as well as being deceptive to their Kickstarter backers and Kickstarter itself.
Any project that raises money for charity violates the TOS. Any project that offers materials that were simply purchased and offered by the creator without being his or her own original work violates the TOS. If it didn't, people wouldn't bother producing projects - they'd simply open stores on KS disguised as projects, selling goods that someone else made in the guise of accepting pledges and completely defeating the purpose for which Kickstarter exists.
While USPC may or may not care about the Bicycle Pink Ribbon deck being offered, I would think that the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure organization would certainly care, especially when the deck is offered as an add-on to a project that will inevitably divert sales of their Bicycle deck to GW's deck.
It says, clear as day, "Projects can’t fundraise for charity, offer financial incentives, or involve prohibited items." If they're offering 20% of sales - or any percentage of sales - of their deck to charity, I'm finding it hard to not see this as being against Kickstarter's rules. And under prohibited items, is clearly states "Resale. All rewards must have been produced or designed by the project or one of its creators — no reselling things from elsewhere." Gambler's Warehouse did NOT create the Bicycle Pink Ribbon deck, something that pre-exists the company by a few years.
I'd be willing to wager that this was a case of GW not intentionally trying to defraud anyone, but simply not knowing better about what is and isn't allowed on Kickstarter. It's all a matter of what, if anything, Kickstarter chooses to do about it. If this was any other deck project, if this didn't involve charitable donations based on sales or the offering of an item they didn't produce, I'd be tickled pink for them and wish them every success.
Situations like this are part of the reason why I bemoan the fact that many companies keep coming back over and over to Kickstarter to offer their products and get them paid for without risk instead of simply digging out the checkbook and putting up the cash themselves. They could have self-produced this deck, offered whatever they pleased, etc. on their own website and it wouldn't be as big a deal. The fact that the project only had a $100 goal is a clear sign that they could have printed this without a single penny of crowdfunding. If they're so proud of their efforts in this case, why does the article on their website announcing that the deck received 200% funding have a placeholder avatar and a blank square entitled "About the Author"? I get it - there's all those people there at KS, looking to buy stuff by backing projects, but at what point does a company stand up on it's own legs? Gambler's Warehouse isn't some starving artist trying to make a dream come true - it's a retail company!
OK, now I'm just ranting. That's my sign to stop.
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