wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) (08/21/84)
Anytime you see a sweepstakes or contest advertised, whether by little cards handed out in McDonalds or in a magazine or newspaper ad, there is a mass of legalese in fine print regarding the rules and operation of the contest. Most of these include a listing of the odds against your winning any one of the prizes. Are there some federal laws or regulations that control what information is presented to the participants, or is this just subject to various state statutes regarding gambling? What inspires this inquiry is my realization that I have been entering contests for some time now in which I have no idea of the odds. Several of the gun magazines have "giveaways", in which you can win a gun or knife, and, to enter, you send in a postcard with your name & address. None of these magazines have ever published any statement regarding the number of entries received for past drawings, or the odds against your winning one of the prizes. Are these magazines in violation of some federal law by not doing this? (I have never written them requesting this information, however; if they only have to make it available upon request, they may be entirely in the right.) Regards, Will Martin seismo!brl-bmd!wmartin or wmartin@almsa-1
spear@ihopb.UUCP (Steven Spearman) (08/23/84)
For a while, many of the by-mail contests published their odds, presumably under some government pressure which they seem to have now gotten around. But it was interesting to see what your chances were. For example, the Publisher's Clearing House sweepstakes had about a 8 cents return on the average for your 20 cents stamp when I checked it. -- Steve Spearman ihnp4!ihopb!spear
lab@qubix.UUCP (Q-Bick) (08/28/84)
> Steve Spearman > For example, the Publisher's Clearing House sweepstakes had about a > 8 cents return on the average for your 20 cents stamp when I checked it. 8 cents! Last time I checked Reader's Digest and PCH, each had a return of about $.019 - less than a 10% return just on the stamp! -- The Ice Floe of Larry Bickford {amd,decwrl,sun,idi,ittvax}!qubix!lab You can't settle the issue until you've settled how to settle the issue.
sharp@aquila.UUCP (08/30/84)
Last time I entered Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes, they REFUNDED my stamp. Sounds like a reasonable deal to me. -- Nigel Sharp [noao!sharp National Optical Astronomy Observatories]
hawk@oliven.UUCP (Rick) (09/05/84)
>Last time I entered Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes, they >REFUNDED my stamp. Sounds like a reasonable deal to me. Reader's Digest mailed my brother four 5 cent stamps with his entry form. I think he used them on something else. -- rick (Rick Hawkins @ Olivetti ATC) [hplabs|zehntel|fortune|ios|tolerant|allegra|tymix]!oliveb!oliven!hawk
ron@brl-tgr.ARPA (Ron Natalie <ron>) (09/11/84)
When I worked at Arbitron (a market/TV/Radio research company) we used to get people who were so pleased to fill out our surveys, that they kept mailing back the token 50 cents that we sent them. Too bad that I was not the first one to open the surveys when they arrived. -Ron