Every year, millions of Canadians participate in promotional contests to try their luck and win a prize, from all-expense paid vacations to a free doughnut.
In the Criminal Code, there are sections that cover running illegal lotteries, much of which first originated in U.K common law, according to Steve Szentesi, a competition and advertising lawyer based in Toronto.
Although many of the underlying principles are the same for what governs these contests in the U.S — like having a no-purchase entry option — Szentesi said when he talks to his American counterparts they are often perplexed at the Canadian quirks.
In addition to the skill-testing questions and no purchase entries, Szentesi said every legal contest needs a full set of rules and regulations that aren’t false and misleading, or they could violate the Competition Act.
There are also rules for disclosure, which includes several things organizers must disclose like the number and value of prizes, the dates of the contest, the odds and who is eligible.
Vienneau said the organization tries to start running its promotional contests around the same time that pre-sales go on sale to help get people thinking about the festival.
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I do like the way these rules are set up, they are usually clear with the initial odds and how many prizes are available because I do bother to read the posted rules. The skill testing question is often a simple math problem, but I wonder if that establishes a minimum math ability for eligibility.
Since there needs to be “No purchase necessary” often you can send a postcard or submit an online entry. Some will require you to write a “100-word essay” on why you love their product, which I think is silly but whatever.
The oversimplified explanation is that having a lottery is heavily regulated in Canada as will all forms of gambling, but offering a prize for a contest of skill is not. And frankly it’s never been a priority for anyone to modernize the laws to something more straightforward.
Legally you can have a “contest of skill” and arbitrary decide a winner at random if there’s a tie. This eventually evolved into the typical “math question with a minimum of 4 operands”, which was ruled as essentially the minimum threshold for demonstrating a degree of skill.
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
Every year, millions of Canadians participate in promotional contests to try their luck and win a prize, from all-expense paid vacations to a free doughnut.
In the Criminal Code, there are sections that cover running illegal lotteries, much of which first originated in U.K common law, according to Steve Szentesi, a competition and advertising lawyer based in Toronto.
Although many of the underlying principles are the same for what governs these contests in the U.S — like having a no-purchase entry option — Szentesi said when he talks to his American counterparts they are often perplexed at the Canadian quirks.
In addition to the skill-testing questions and no purchase entries, Szentesi said every legal contest needs a full set of rules and regulations that aren’t false and misleading, or they could violate the Competition Act.
There are also rules for disclosure, which includes several things organizers must disclose like the number and value of prizes, the dates of the contest, the odds and who is eligible.
Vienneau said the organization tries to start running its promotional contests around the same time that pre-sales go on sale to help get people thinking about the festival.
The original article contains 834 words, the summary contains 194 words. Saved 77%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
I do like the way these rules are set up, they are usually clear with the initial odds and how many prizes are available because I do bother to read the posted rules. The skill testing question is often a simple math problem, but I wonder if that establishes a minimum math ability for eligibility.
Since there needs to be “No purchase necessary” often you can send a postcard or submit an online entry. Some will require you to write a “100-word essay” on why you love their product, which I think is silly but whatever.
Skill testing question is just pre-internet CAPTCHA.
The oversimplified explanation is that having a lottery is heavily regulated in Canada as will all forms of gambling, but offering a prize for a contest of skill is not. And frankly it’s never been a priority for anyone to modernize the laws to something more straightforward.
Legally you can have a “contest of skill” and arbitrary decide a winner at random if there’s a tie. This eventually evolved into the typical “math question with a minimum of 4 operands”, which was ruled as essentially the minimum threshold for demonstrating a degree of skill.