Dynasty Host http://dynastyhost.com is giving away a Playstation 2, the hottest got-to-have game superunit.

Legions of people on the Web are paying hundreds of dollars over the $299 retail value just to get their hands on it

All you have to do is sign up for hosting service before December 14, 2000 and automatically enter to win!! Contest will be held on December 15, 2000.

Contact sales@dynastyhost.com for contest rules and details.

Isn't there some law against that?

Don't mean to sound negative. I believe it was http://www.1simple.com who was going to do something like that (this was over a year ago) but apparently the competition has to be open to all. I think it Jason Ellis who responded with advice. Can't be sure though.

I believe there is. A public contest has to be available "no purchase necessary" in most states (if not all states). I'm sure you can have a drawing for current customers (but that isn't the jist of this).

All you'd have to do is change the contest to be open to anyone, with a sign up form on your site to enter.

Chicken is correct,

You have to make a contest open to everyone, or its illigal, you can however offer 5 playstations to the first 5 people signing up or something along those lines.

Thanks for the input.

This contest is for our own customer. It is not a public contest. You must be a customer to enter.

Is it still illegal?

As we said in previos posts it has to be open to the public, in other words you can discriminate between someone who is signed up with you and someone who walks in off the streets and does not want to be a customer.

Originally posted by DynastyHost
Is it still illegal?

I think you should either consult a lawyer concerning how this can be run, or at least try to find some info on the web (I think there are even law sites that you can email a question in). You may have to open it up to all your customers, both old and new, or it still might be illegal.

Obviously there are times that contests are run that aren't open to the general public (employee type contests for example, not that it really applies here). Or maybe a good lawyer can word the terms of the contest just so (contest is open to any individual on Alabanza server number 37645). Now again, I don't know the soundness of any of these examples, just that I know I have seen clauses such as, must be a resident of the United States, etc., so there might be a way to clause your way out of this :)

Who really cares if its between his customers or not. Get a life and get on with real issues

PepsiCoke

That remark was unnecessary, we should care, most of us are friends here and we don't what to see anybody unwillingly breaking the law and getting in trouble.

So if you don't have something helpful to say, don't say anything at all

I think Carlos summed it up nicely.

We still have a virtual account with a well known host, and every month they have a drawing for their customers where they give away something, like a visor handheld etc. It's for customers only, but if you signup your then a customer and have the opportunity to be in the drawing. Whether it's right or wrong I dont know, but do know that it's been going on for quite some time and nowere does it stipulate no purchase necessary to the customers. We just get their newsletter that says, and this months winner of the ibook or of the visor handheld is <insert user name here>, we will be contacting you shortly to make sure that we have your correct mailing address.

Just pointing it out, it also helps to be on the right side of the law, you might get someone without a life that would actually do something. Personally, I don't give one either way, although a PS2 would be nice :). I doubt anyone is going sue you or devote precious resources to open it to the public.

Big companies do have to be very warey of the law. Hence the popular term in most competition 'No purchase neccessary'.

I think that having a drawing for your customers is fine (like I mentioned), as long as it includes all your customers. I think. -But you can't have a contest where the person *must* purchase something in order to enter. I tried to find a link to legal aspects of contests on the web, but failed. Doing it the right way, never hurts :)

I will ask on my lawyer friends about this but I think you're all correct. It's all about wording even though we all know what you're after. It must be said legally. You shouldn't have "must", that will kill you right there. I know you can do what you're trying to do but you must say it wisely. I will check into that for you.

I bet Chicken wins...

If I do, I'll give it away. I don't play vid-games. I bought a few for my computer recently (6 racing games), and used them the first day. Since then, I haven't.

In the event Mr. Bush is found to be the winner of the presidential campaign, I'd suggest donating it to the Whitehouse. This could go far toward keeping him away from other things with buttons, there.

That was too funny etLux, I sure wish your going to give some advance warning next time you get so funny, I had to clean the coffee off my keyboard after I blew it out my nose from laughing.

The laughing tears are still rolling down my cheeks, or is that missle projected coffee.

Bbox

Alas, I was entirely serious.

Bwahahahahhhahhahahah

*makes a mental note to avoid Washington DC in the next 4 years should Bush win*

Originally posted by Chicken
I think that having a drawing for your customers is fine (like I mentioned), as long as it includes all your customers. I think. -But you can't have a contest where the person *must* purchase something in order to enter.

Okay, so then it's only a matter or wording it properly, something like an announcement on your sites pages that say something to the effect of
Attention all customers, we will be giving away one playstation per month to a randomly drawn customer. We will be drawing names out of a hat.

Signup today, become a member, have a chance to wind a sony playstation every month for the next 4 months.

I think that would pretty much do it, since your not opening the contest to any purchase but rather just announcing that you will be giving away something to existing customers by random raffle type of system.

Hmmm, maybe I'll pursue somthing like this, who know it may bring people in, or it may bring people in that will signup, wait for the first raffle, then cancel their account and take advantage of our 30 day money back guarantee.

I hope the person who is actually running this lets us know whether or not it increased sales any.

Bbox

This is all starting to sound vaguely reminiscent of some nonsense I heard lately about counting dimpled chads, or something.

Just give somebody the fool thing and get this monkey off your back, man!

Other than George W., no one obsesses over a video game like this...

Ok, here's the deal. You can do what you want. Check out this url, they are doing the same thing. http://www.web-hosting.com/welcome/camera_offer/index.html I think you're fine, just check with a lawyer if you can other than that I think you're OK.

Thank you for all your help.

:)

Originally posted by cahostnet
Ok, here's the deal. You can do what you want. Check out this url, they are doing the same thing. http://www.web-hosting.com/welcome/camera_offer/index.html I think you're fine, just check with a lawyer if you can other than that I think you're OK.

Ben, that's different from the original post that Dynasty made. The link you posted is an offer for everyone who signs up, not a contest. Everyone will get a camera.