Promosis Blog

A sweepstakes can be a perfect tool for motivating your audience to take action. However, it needs to be carefully administered to ensure it meets specific guidelines in order for it to be a legal game of chance - and NOT an illegal lottery.

A California court recently published a decision supporting a class-action lawsuit asserting that the text message sweepstakes run in connection with game shows Deal or No Deal, 1 vs. 100, and The Apprentice were in fact illegal lotteries.

The game shows offered two methods of entry: Via text messaging, for which standard airtime fees and a $.99 premium were charged, and through a web site, for which no purchase was required. The problem was with the fee associated with the text message entry. Even though a no purchase option was available, the plaintiff argued that the sweepstakes was illegal because entrants paid for sending the text message in return for nothing of value - no good or service - other than a chance to win the prize.

The lesson to take from this is that a free method of entry will not prevent your sweepstakes from being an illegal lottery if you're charging a fee solely to enter the promotion.

Thanks for visiting, and please don't hesitate to share your thoughts and ideas with us and others who share your interest in getting your target audience to ACT; just click below on the "comment" link.

Best wishes,

Harry

PS: Coming soon - opportunities to earn points and win dynamite prizes in our PROMOpoints instant-win game!