Is it legal to start a competition? Help please!!

thekoolone88

I am looking for advice on setting up a competition?

I have a number of subscribers who pay an annual fee for the service on my website? I want to set up a competition/prize draw for these subscribers. there would be no additional fee to entry the draw.

Does anyone know where I could get information on this?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Ciaran

Victor

It needs to be a competition (perform a skill, e.g. answer a question), not a lottery. If it is a lottery, you need a licence from the Garda.

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1956/en/act/pub/0002/index.html

thekoolone88

Thanks for your reply Victor.

Basically, it will be a draw involving all the subscribers. 3 of them will be chosen at random each week to win a prize.

It wont be a lottery as it wont involve them picking numbers.

It is a free draw...

Victor

thekoolone88 wrote: »

It wont be a lottery

Oh really?

It is a free draw...

Are you sure?

seamus

I would double-check it with a solicitor.

Going by the Act Victor posted, it doesn't fall under the definition of gaming because there is no stake involved and it's not a lottery because nobody's making any "guesses".

But that's my interpretation only. There may be more definitive rules on it. As Victor quite rightly points out, although the subscribers are entered into the draw gratis, the act of them having paid for subscription could be seen as a payment.

The law may also consider, "I could be the one to be picked out" to be a type of "guess" covered by the Act.

krd

A draw is a lottery. I have looked this up.

There is a way around it. You ask a stupid question that everyone would know the answer to.

The laws and rules exist to cover gambling. If you're thinking of running something that effectively comes down to gambling - ie people pay money and take a chance, you're not going to get away with it. You might "get away" with it - but you might get your collar felt and end up in court.

John368

I am very sceptical about online draws. There is really no way of policing them as far as I can see.

For example, I once took out a subscription on a business forum when there was an offer of a draw for cash. A few months after the date of the draw, I queried the owner of the site as to who had won the draw. After receiving no answer, I kept on querying it and few others of the site queried it. Eventually the owner replied that the person who won the draw had requested "no publicity". This was for a £100 prize! Not the national lotery. I was at once was going to query it, but with whom can you query it? You cannot really query it on the open site, because I would be basically acusing the owner of fraud - thus leaving myself open to libel. I decided just to leave it, cancel my subscriptionand and not go back to the site.

If you do insist on doing it, perhaps one way of make it look trustworth to the website users is to get a firm of chartered accountants to oversee the whole process and mention that this is being done on the site.

John

thekoolone88

Thanks everyone for their opinions.
The service we provide costs €100, regardless if the subscriber wants to be involved in the draw.
To keep it legal and open to the public, I would plan to provide a live webcam link to every draw each week.

KRD, people wont be paying money to take the chance. They will be paying for the service. As a free addition, I will offer them the opportunity to be included in the draw. If they dont want to be included, the service will still cost €100.

Anyone else got any ideas?

DubTony

The draw may be seen as a way to entice people to use the service, and maybe then it might fall under the legislation, in that people may only sign up to be included in the draw. What's the value of the prize?

thekoolone88

Thanks Dubtony. We have a large number of businesses that pay to advertise on our website so the prize would be vouchers to spend with the businesses on the website...maybe 1 500euro voucher and 5 100euro vouchers.

What could I do if someone wanted to sign up as a result of the draw?

Victor

Just do it legitimately, include a competition element and there is no particular problem.

Have a look at what Dublin Bus do here: http://www.facebook.com/update_security_info.php?wizard=1#!/ticketthursdays its a bit of fun and it drums up business and goodwill.

maxer68

Facebook competitions are best. It brings active users into the site, creates fun and a sense of community.

Works great for me with about 20% of "likes" entering each week for small vouchers. Questions are always easy & fun and not necessarily product related.