What is a sweepstake?

Just read the new blog post, so sweepstakes are ok, but what are they referring to?

I havent seen that term before.

Bye bye slingo, its sad to see you go, maybe we'll see each other in Hipihi.

Please do not start any rants about how this ban sucks, ive read the blog and accepted it, i just want to know what a sweepstake is.

Chess anyone?

Rocketman,

A sweepstakes is typically a product or prize that is given away at random to those who enter the contest. It is usually done by companies that are encouraging people to buy a particular product. The kick is that they cannot be required to buy the product. There has to be a free way to enter the sweepstakes. Here's a good link for you:

http://www.dmaconsumers.org/sweepstakeshelp.html

Ask Ed McMahon

You may already have won 10 million Simoleons.

Slingo, bingo, and the rest of the -ingos are not banned. They are only banned if you have to pay to play. At least that is how I read it. If you have a free game that people just donate to a pot, I think it will still be allowed.

But then I could be wrong, so you better ask LL about that.

they find the time to write a 2000 word blog but fail to write anything when the grid is down

If people are paying money in, it is wagering. This is not rocket science.


What do you mean they fail to write anything when the grid is down? Just before the gambling policy post, there are 5-6 posts providing information on grid status.

sounds like a sweepstake in the u.s. is different to the u.k.

So would those grab machines in sl be classed as a sweepstake?. The ones where you pay and it gives you a random prize

I don't think it is that cut and dry.

Is tringo a game of chance or of skill? What about brigtris? What if there is just a pot where you don't have to pay to play? If it is a voluntary to put into the pot, is it really gambling? The person that wins doesn't have to pay anything to win, so isn't it a sweepstakes then?

No. Sweepstakes entry must be free, at least for the version that's legal in the U.S.

The best-known example of a U.S. sweepstakes is the Publisher's Clearinghouse one. Basically they send out a huge package of magazine advertising to most households. It has ways for you to order magazine subscriptions, and ways to enter the sweepstakes.

It is legal because you can enter the sweepstakes without ordering any of their magazine subscriptions. However, they do make it FEEL like your entry won't receive equal consideration if you don't order the magazines. If you enter the sweepstakes AND order magazines, it's on a big colorful sheet that you stick big gold star stickers on saying YES, I WANT TO WIN TONS OF MONEY, and it gets sent in a big envelope labeled RUSH! IMPORTANT! in giant red letters. If you choose to enter the sweepstakes WITHOUT buying magazines, you send in the one that says NO! I DON'T WANT TO PARTICIPATE (then in tiny letters: in the amazing magazine savings, but please do enter me in the sweepstakes), on plainly colored paper, and sent to a completely different address, in a rather plain looking envelope that looks like it will surely get lost in the big scary mail system.

Okay, that's a little exaggerated, but you get the idea. But as much as they do to suggest that buying something increases your chances of winning, they also have to have "No purchase necessary" written all over, and have it be reasonably obvious (if not terribly convincing). Without that, it is not legal.

Another very basic sweepstake is where every person who enteres a store had their name put in a hat and at the end of the day a name is pulled and they win a prize. This is used to encourage people to visit the store and does not cost the entrant anything.

I was specifically addressing this statement of yours:

... and you added this...

The SL policy statement did not make this distinction.

I have never heard of such an exception here (I live in the same jurisdiction as LL). If there was such a loophole, gambling would be happening all over the place here, and it just isn't.

thanks that clears that up.

For those wanting further information, Wikipedia offers a good overview of U.S. sweepstakes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweepstakes

It also has a section on U.K sweepstakes, which you can see is something totally different and clearly not allowed by the LL no-gambling policy. I would guess that LL was simply unaware that the word "sweepstakes" meant something significantly different in the U.K.

/me giggles remembering the very cute British foreign exchange student who told my brother to knock her up if he came to London. My family still teases him about that one!

and have you noticed that brits giggle when you mention your "fanny"

OMG! You can't imagine how much I laughed when I learned that one!

Funnily enough, I do believe under British law it's -not- considered gambling.

Of course, I want to emphasise 'I do believe' as in I'm not entirely certain and 'under British law', just in case anyone gets the crazy idea that that's applicable to SL

I'm reminded of back when Franz Ferdinand weren't very well known and played secret gigs in Glasgow... they didn't have a licence to sell alcohol, but you don't need a licence to either sell raffle tickets or to give away alcohol, so they sold raffle tickets which gave the bearer of the ticket a 100% chance of 'winning' a beer.

I would say both bingtris and tringo are games of skill. They say on the blog that puzzles are allowed ... Isnt those examples of puzzles? (or is this a language thing?) Even though there is a random element in both tringo and bingtris, it wouldnt take much skill if the board was the same every time, so i think we can still play these. There is a reason the same people win over and over. Bingtris has been taken down for the time being though, maybe forever

As far as SLingo goes ... There is some skill involved in picking the right place to put it when you get jokers, but thats about it. I dont know how that would be classified from LLs point of view.

From what i read, it seems like its goodbye for tringo, slingo, zyngo and all their derivatives.

Sweepstakes are allowed and so are games such as chess.

No, in the UK a Sweepstake is not seen as gambling - more like a not-for-profit raffle - the person running the sweepstake does not take any profit. It is meant purely as a fun activity. Typically in the UK a sweepstake can be run by anyone - you don't need to be licenced - but they are always limited in scope and the numbers of entrants possible.

Typically, a sweepstake can be run for someting like a big horse race, such as the Grand National, which is an annual event. You can only sell as many sweepstake tickets as there are horses entered in the race and everyone pays the same for a ticket and the entire pot is paid out in winnings. So you draw a number which corresponds to a horse in the race - you may draw the favourite or an outsider, so this is where the luck element comes in. The person with the sweepstake ticket for the winning horse gets the pot. (Or possibly a proportion for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places - this can vary - but the entire pot is paid out.) It is very popular for events such as the Grand National as this is the sort of race in which anything can happen - the favourite can easily fall and a rank outsider can win. Often a group of co-workers will hold a such a sweepstake amongst themselves as an office social activity. As there is no profit taking involved by the organiser, and there is no "book making", it is not seen to be betting in the same way as selecting the horse and the amount of money you place on it and whether you bet "to win" or "both ways". That type of betting is covered by the Betting and Gaming Acts and requires licensing.

I had no idea that in the USA, a sweepstake had a different connotation.

I've got over the giggling phase now - I just smile quietly to myself.

No need to be confused, as LL spelled it out:
So a game must be based PURELY on skill to be allowed. Anything that has an element of chance is not allowed.

So you can only play Scrabble if you always get the letters in the same order?
And only backgammon if you dont roll the dice, but move from a list of numbers that is always the same?

I dont think that was intention.


Most games will have some random element to them.