is he running the lottery from his own funds? if so its very generous of him.
Yes, and yes it is. I do help him top it up every so often though =)
Edit: will there be some sort of a referral system, have you ever thought about doing it?
There's really not enough of a margin to support a meaningful referral program. I mean, despite incredible volume (~18k BTC wagered in the last 30 days), our thin house edge has still managed to be down 55 BTC during that time period (good player luck). So we really do rely on organic word-of-mouth to survive =)