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November 25, 2008

Blendtec's illegal sweepstakes ()

by fluffy at 4:17 PM
So, Blendtec are having a sweepstakes to win a trip to Blendtec Headquarters and appear on Will It Blend. However, the sweepstakes requires purchase of a blender, which makes it technically a lottery, and thus possibly illegal, as I understand it.

Does anyone with better knowledge of the law know more about the actual laws involved? The closest I can find is regarding lottery-by-mail which is probably not within the scope of this.

Comments

#11491 11/26/2008 10:49 am
Are you sure there's not a "NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. To enter, engrave your name and address on a thimble and send it via carrier pigeon to:" somewhere buried deep in the fine print?
#11492 11/26/2008 10:50 am
Well, I linked to the page with the only fine print that's available for the contest, and there was absolutely nothing about entry without purchase.
#11493 11/26/2008 10:58 am
"Contest void where prohibited by law."

Could be a wink-wink nudge-nudge kind of deal where they will "honor" entries even if they were from illegal jurisdictions. That's getting outside of my level of knowledge.
#11494 11/26/2008 11:00 am
Or, it could just be flat-out illegal. Starbucks did a "free coffee if you voted" promotion on election day this year, then had to backpedal when they realized that was illegal (you can't give incentives to vote, probably since that's a slippery slope to giving incentives to vote for a particular candidate).