Advisory opinion letter to Mr. Garvey

Dear Mr. Garvey:

As a producer of games and promotions for the super market industry, we at Radcliffe Advertising, Inc. have created a new type promotion which is similar to a game, but totally different in many ways. Because this is true, we would like to get an advisory opinion on this promotional technique. We think it is a sweepstakes or similar to a drawing, not a game.

The promotion works this way:

We give every contestant a sweepstakes card free. On the card are twenty-five numbers. . . .from one to twenty-five. Every card has all twenty-five numbers. . . .but arranged in a randomly different order on each card. These numbers are covered with an easily scratched off material. The customer is invited to remove any nine of the covered numbers, and told to match a given nine numbers. For example, match the numbers 1, 11, 21, 3, 18, 23, 5, 15, and 25. If she matches any eight of the nine numbers, she wins or shares a monthly jackpot of approximately $40,000. If only one person matches eight numbers (on one card), that person wins the entire $40,000. If more than one person matches eight numbers, the jackpot is divided equally among all those contestants.

In addition to this Giant Jackpot, there is also a Junior Jackpot of

approximately $20,000. Any contestant matching seven of these numbers out of nine, wins or shares the Junior Jackpot in the same manner.

This is how the promotion works. We feel it is totally different from a game in the following ways: .

1. There are no key cards. Every sweepstakes card has the same twenty-five numbers. Every and/or any card can win. . . .it is not necessary to get a key card to win.

2. Until the end of the month, we do not know how many contestants will participate in the jackpot, so therefore we cannot know how much each contestant will win. . . .only that each winning contestant will share a jackpot of a predetermined amount.

3. There is no mixing necessary of the sweepstakes cards because the arrangement of the twenty-five numbers on every card is different. There are no two cards alike in the entire promotion. 4. There is no possibility of adding additional winners to the sweepstakes because the jackpots are predetermined and we intend to give out all the money in the jackpots. In the event no one picks the number correctly, the jackpots are carried over and - added to the next month’s jackpot ad infinitum until the jackpots are given away. ;

5. The size of the prize depends solely on the number of contestants who guess correctly where the winning numbers are on the card.

6. The odds of determining the size of the prizes are not under our control but are strictly based on the luck of the contestants. Several years ago, we submitted another promotion using this same jackpot idea to the commission for an opinion. The opinion of the staff was that this promotion, entitled “Jackpot Football”, did not come under the game rule. We feel that this promotion is similar in nature and would not fall under the game rule.

In the running of this promotion, there is not a way we can fail to give out all of the jackpots. There is not a way we cannot properly mix the cards because the contestants in effect mix the cards with their choice of panels to uncover. There is no way we can control the size of prizes in any way because this is determined strictly by the luck of the contestants who submit entries.

We would appreciate an opinion of the staff of the Federal Trade

Commission.
Sincerely,
fmt TTA. N~ 3-VLeL.