murray@sun13.scri.fsu.edu (John Murray) (02/07/91)
The US shortwave station WWCR 7520 KHz just reported at about 5:00 UTC 2-7-90 that two gentlemen have been convicted of violation of Texas sweepstakes laws due to their 1-900 marketing of a sweepstakes to win a crewmember position on a russian space mission. No other details were reported at the time. I'd like to see email from anyone that caught the details of the conviction. Disclaimer: Yeah, right, like you really believe I run this place. John R. Murray murray@vsjrm.scri.fsu.edu Supercomputer Research Inst.
john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) (02/07/91)
John Murray <murray@sun13.scri.fsu.edu> writes: > The US shortwave station WWCR 7520 KHz just reported at about 5:00 UTC > 2-7-90 that two gentlemen have been convicted of violation of Texas > sweepstakes laws due to their 1-900 marketing of a sweepstakes to win > a crewmember position on a russian space mission. Justice certainly moves swiftly in Texas. I heard yesterday on KGO (San Francisco) that these people had just been arrested on charges of operating an illegal lottery. They were released (or perhaps held in lieu of) $2000 bail. Once again, we seem to have conflicting reports on this matter. Just another example of our super-accurate media at work. > [Moderator's Note: Not only is it void in NY, FL and RI, it may be > void everywhere by now if the latest news report is accurate. > Supposedly the guys running it have been found guilty. PAT] And where did your report come from? Are there now at least three different versions of what happened to these guys? Arrested and guilty are usually separated by more than one day even on traffic offenses. John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395 john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o ! [Moderator's Note: I say if they're arrested they must be guilty, and if they're guilty they must be hung immediatly. Of course I am a Bigoted and Very Biased Immoderate Moderator ... :) Seriously John, all I know about this is what I read in TELECOM Digest, and my reputation for lying is not any worse than {Readers Digest}. I just went with the original poster's comments ... sorry! PAT]
dcm@dell.dell.com (Dave McCracken) (02/07/91)
murray@sun13.scri.fsu.edu (John Murray) writes: >The US shortwave station WWCR 7520 KHz just reported at about 5:00 UTC >2-7-90 that two gentlemen have been convicted of violation of Texas >sweepstakes laws due to their 1-900 marketing of a sweepstakes to win >a crewmember position on a russian space mission. >No other details were reported at the time. >I'd like to see email from anyone that caught the details of the >conviction. There was an article in the Austin paper about it this morning. They have not been convicted, merely indicted. The Houston DA's office claims they are running an illegal lottery because of the 1-900 phone charges. The people running the sweepstakes maintain they were told by the DA's office in December that since they also allowed free mail-in entries that it was legal. The impression I get from sci.space is that the organizers are space enthusiasts honestly interested in putting an American on Mir, and used the 900 number to help defray the $10 million charged by Glavcosmos. It sounds like they are getting jerked around by yet another publicity-seeking prosecutor out to advance his political career. Dave McCracken dcm@dell.dell.com (512) 343-3720 Dell Computer 9505 Arboretum Blvd Austin, TX 78759-7299
murray@sun13.scri.fsu.edu (John Murray) (02/07/91)
Michael Ho sent me an excerpt of an article in the {Omaha World-Herald},
which reports that David Mayer, president, and James Davidson, senior
vice president of Space Travel Services were arrested Wednesday for
alleged violation of Texas gambling laws.
Note that there is a bit of a difference between an arrest and a
conviction. Since I can't get WWCR right now to see what they're
saying at the moment, I must assume that I misheard them last night.
Sorry for the possible misreporting, folks.
Disclaimer: Yeah, right, like you really believe I run this place.
John R. Murray murray@vsjrm.scri.fsu.edu Supercomputer Research Inst.peter@taronga.hackercorp.com (Peter da Silva) (02/08/91)
I suspect other, similar, 900 services with the postcard-entry dodge have run in Texas. They shoulda picked another state, though: a lot of Texas politicos are a mite touchy about NASA. Holding a competition like this so close to Johnson Space Center was like waving a red flag in front of the bull. > [Moderator's Note: Not only is it void in NY, FL and RI, it may be > void everywhere by now if the latest news report is accurate. > Supposedly the guys running it have been found guilty. PAT] Guilty of "running an illegal lottery", according to the news reports yesterday. I don't think anyone showed they didn't have the goods to deliver. (peter@taronga.uucp.ferranti.com)