Tweet
yeah, but does anybody care about any of it? rd
-
-
When is a giveaway a sweepstakes?
Only the feds. chuck Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of my employer. "Ralph Daugherty" -
When is a giveaway a sweepstakes?
I don't know anything about sweepstakes being "highly illegal" or anything about The Barsa Group, but from what you just stated, it really doesn't sound illegal. There is a conference, and they are advertising for it by saying they are giving away prizes to those who attend. You are not paying the money to be entered into a drawing, you are paying to attend the conference. Maybe if there was no conference to attend and you were paying simply for the drawing, I can see how that could be illegal. I guess the Feds would have to prove that the money paid went directly (and solely?) to purchase the prizes, which they would not be able to do, so like Ralph said, they probably don't care. But like I said before, I didn't know that was illegal in the first place. What law is it that you are referring to?Comment
-
When is a giveaway a sweepstakes?
Maybe, instead of moaning and groaning about it, you should drop a line to Al Barsa and ask him!?!?Comment
-
When is a giveaway a sweepstakes?
Mike, The laws are pretty clear. Anytime a prize giveaway requires any type of money transaction to take place before you can be entered it becomes a lottery and is illegal. This is true in all 50 states. It doesn't matter that none of the money goes toward the drawing. The ONLY kind of giveaway that is legal is one that where "no purchase necessary to enter" is clearly stated and a method for entry without spending any money is permitted. More info here: http://articles.corporate.findlaw.co...e/00525/009727, especially where it states: "Sweepstakes Must Make Available A Reasonable Free Method of Entry"You'll notice that any giveaway anywhere always states "no purchase necessary" is added to the fine print. Usually it requires sending an entry via mail.It cost American Family Publisher's $33 million to learn the hard way:------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SWEEPSTAKES COMPANY TO PAY $33 MILLION, CLARIFY ADS
'You Are a Winner' to be Reworded: 'No Purchase Necessary' NEWARK, New Jersey Sweepstakes operator American Family Publishers (AFP) agreed last week to pay $33 million and make its mailings more clear after being sued for allegedly defrauding up to 35 million consumers. AFP's settlement will be used to reimburse consumers who say they were tricked into buying AFP products in a misguided attempt to improve their odds of winning the company's sweepstakes. The bankrupt company also agreed to print "No Purchase Necessary" in bold type on its mailings and remove misleading phrases such as "You Are a Winner½." The firm will also provide consumers with odds of winning, and use bigger type to print disclaimers, the Associated Press reported. Last week's action is the latest in a series of settlements, lawsuits, and legislation aimed at reforming the practices of the sweepstakes industry, frequently criticized for using misleading advertisementschuck Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of my employer. "Mike2938" <Mike2938@mcpressonline.com> wrote in message news:6b2078d0.2@WebX.WawyahGHajS... > I don't know anything about sweepstakes being "highly illegal" or anything about The Barsa Group, but from what you just stated, it really doesn't sound illegal. There is a conference, and they are advertising for it by saying they are giving away prizes to those who attend. You are not paying the money to be entered into a drawing, you are paying to attend the conference. Maybe if there was no conference to attend and you were paying simply for the drawing, I can see how that could be illegal. > > I guess the Feds would have to prove that the money paid went directly (and solely?) to purchase the prizes, which they would not be able to do, so like Ralph said, they probably don't care. But like I said before, I didn't know that was illegal in the first place. What law is it that you are referring to?Comment
-
When is a giveaway a sweepstakes?
Chuck, Well like I said, I didn't know the specifics of the law, which is why I asked which you referred to. The link wasn't working, but I will look it up more later. Its odd though, because it seems that many times I have come across a drawing that requires me to purchase something beforehand. The only example I can think of right now is a raffle at a local sporting event. The one where you buy a ticket for a dollar and prizes and/or money is given away to the winner. Does that not apply? ... Just thought of another... I receieved a gift certificate for Old Navy for Christmas. On the gift card, there is a number that the cashier scans to check if I won. (If I bring it in before Jan 31.) A monetary transaction is required for me to be eligible to win (purchase of the gift card which is the same as purchasing an item.) According to what you stated, I should be able to go in there and be entered in that contest without purchasing the gift card? If not, then it is illegal? MikeComment
-
When is a giveaway a sweepstakes?
Mike asked: "The one where you buy a ticket for a dollar and prizes and/or money is given away to the winner. Does that not apply?" There are some specific rules that apply to charitable organizations. For example, the local high school offers a 50/50 drawing. One must be in the stadium to enter the 50/50 drawing. Whether that's legal or not, I don't know. I suspect that would be decided in court should one make a case for it. Mike also asked: "I receieved a gift certificate for Old Navy for Christmas. On the gift card, there is a number that the cashier scans to check if I won. (If I bring it in before Jan 31.) A monetary transaction is required for me to be eligible to win (purchase of the gift card which is the same as purchasing an item.) According to what you stated, I should be able to go in there and be entered in that contest without purchasing the gift card? If not, then it is illegal?" Absolutely correct. If they don't have a "no purchase" way to enter the contest then they are in violation of the lottery law. chuck Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of my employer.Comment
-
When is a giveaway a sweepstakes?
Maybe, instead of moaning and groaning about it, you should drop a line to Al Barsa and ask him!?!? That would imply that Al knows something about sweepstakes giveaways that Chuck doesn't know. While Al may have some good info to give us about connectivity, I doubt he knows an exception to a very clear law. On the other hand, I think everybody including the Feds should give him a break as I imagine it's hard enough to get conference attendees.
rd
Comment
-
When is a giveaway a sweepstakes?
American Family Publishers a bankrupt company? What a laugh. It was Time's sweepstakes until stuff hit the fan, then all of a sudden they're on their own and bankrupt. I wonder if that's before or after they paid all the fines and settled all the lawsuits? In fall 1988 I wrote the PC barcode scanning system to process the January 1989 AFP sweepstakes. If that seems a bit late for Time to get something into place, it shows how long IBM kept them enthralled with PS/2 gurus from Boca trying to get some scanners to plug into the PS/2 serial ports (oh excuse me, the ARTIC board) and scan data to display on the screeen. It was pathetic to watch them in action. Not until September were they desperate enough to turn to a contractor like me to maybe be able to get something into place for January. I had eight scanners displaying data in eight boxes on a DOS screen within two days, including having a multiple serial port board overnighted. They told IBM they'd get back to them. rdComment
-
When is a giveaway a sweepstakes?
My point is this - instead of wasting our time and bandwidth complaining about something that no one reading this newsgroup can do anything about (I presume that Mr. Barsa does not read this newgroup otherwise he probably would've replied), why don't you contact the company for an answer? The answer might not be complete or it might not be the answer you want, but at least you've registered your comment with the correct entity. Otherwise, it's like complaining about the weather - everyone's got an opinion about it but no one can change it.Comment
-
When is a giveaway a sweepstakes?
This is Shooting the Breeze, you know. Speaking of which, I'd like to ask what you all think about the Comair "glitch" that grounded their flights last weekend until... well, I guess they said they hoped to be up and running by Wednesday. The first reports were at least coherent. A Comair spokesman said the computer system was inundated with cancelled flights when snowstorm closed down Ohio airports, then a large number of employees called in sick. He said the scheduling system just quit working and they essentially hung it up, shutting down the airline for days until they can resynch their operations. That's about as bad as it can get. Then the reporters kick in, talking of "glitches", need for redundant systems, power backups, and other, at least to me, ignorant references to hardware failures. AP reports in "Computer Woes Continue to Plague Airlines" that there are "calls" for backup systems and other "technologies" to prevent this from occurring again. Well, let's see. Do we think the computer was on a UPS? Yes, so let's drop the power backup crap out of the equation. Redundant systems? I think nearly everyone and their mother has a backup computer, especially an airline. Running parallel in tandem? We used to do that in long distance telephony switching, with a moderator CPU that decided which system to go with if the output became different indicating a failure. Not sure how it's handled now, but there's a lot internal redundancy now such as RAID drives and error correcting memory which along with multiple CPU's does much of that internally. Here's where the ignorance kicks in though, and let's assume for the moment it's not mine. These people talk as if typing in cancellations stresses the hardware somehow, but gee, if we had redundant systems maybe one would survive the impact of keystrokes and manage to kick out the umpteenth flight plan for Christmas Day that keeps changing every few minutes. Running software redundantly crashes reduntantly, but not applying the same changes to both systems is not running redundantly. These people incessantly talk of "glitches" that can be overcome if you just buy another computer, that is as in the article, "investments" in backup systems. My guess is that IBM and HP must be making these "calls" referred to. To this day if you read anything about massive government software failures, which are all too easy to find, the project status from some bureaucrat will be that they spent a bazillion dollars on consultants to spend a bazillion dollars on new computers to run the old software, but sometime in your child's lifetime the software will be replaced with artificially intelligent web enabled software (read: gee, all you need is a browser!!! oh excuse me, and with ActiveX... and it has to be IE 5+... and it has to run in Windows... and Bill Gates has to sign off on the PO). Now we go from ignorance to lies only the ignorant would believe. From a coherent and obviously honest statement from a Comair spokesman on the day of failure, we now have executives kicking in with PR damage control. The scheduling system, we are told, is set to be replaced with a new system that can handle more transactions but, oops, it was "not set to come online" until mid-January. I don't know which I disbelieve more, that they were going to replace their system in two weeks or that they even have replacement software. Now on to regularly scheduled breeze shooting... rd
Comment
-
When is a giveaway a sweepstakes?
Steve said: "instead of wasting our time and bandwidth" First, only YOU can waste your time. If you're really worried about wasting time and If you use a newsreader such as MS Outlook Express to read this newsgroup then you can easily click twice on the header and eliminate all new posts on this subject from appearing in your reader. If you're not using a news reader and are reading this newsgroup via a browser then it's clear that you don't really care about wasting time, since that's what you're doing. Second, if you are concerned about bandwidth from a text based newsgroup then I pity your Internet connection. Steve added: "complaining about something that no one reading this newsgroup can do anything about" You must be new to the newsgroup "Shooting the breeze" as that's all we do here: talk about things we have no control over! Steve said: "I presume that Mr. Barsa does not read this newgroup otherwise he probably would've replied" You can bet it'll get back to him. The AS/400 world is a small community. Steve added: "Otherwise, it's like complaining about the weather - everyone's got an opinion about it but no one can change it." Your complaining about my complaining will have no bearing on whether I stop commenting on such matters. chuck Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of my employer.Comment
-
When is a giveaway a sweepstakes?
As an aside.. I just posted my original message to the Midrange-L mailing list. I KNOW that Barsa reads that religiously. It should stir things up a bit. chuck Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of my employer. "Steve McKay"Comment
-
When is a giveaway a sweepstakes?
What about trade show booth contests? If you go to COMMON, for example, a lot of vendors have contests in their booths. Some of the prizes are even cool. You have to go by their booth to drop your business card into the jar or to have your conference badge scanned (now the more common, no pun intended, method). Some require that you not only be there to enter the contest, but you also have to be there when they select the winner. To get to their booth you have to buy at least a one-day show pass or have someone buy it for you, so a purchase is necessary. Is this an illegal practice? Does the law say anything about the size of the prize? Would a cheap T-shirt be OK, but a million dollar prize be illegal or are they both equally illegal?Comment
-
When is a giveaway a sweepstakes?
IANAL but according to what I have read, the Federal Government gets involved if the contest crosses state lines. Anything that does not leave a state's boundaries is a state matter, and state lottery laws apply. DaveComment
Comment