• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Legal Question...

M

Meepster

I don't know a great deal about legalities in radio these days (or any other days), but I have a question.
Is it legal for a station to give away lottery tickets as prizes?

I believe I heard a station doing it (offering you a chance at a MILLION bucks) over this weekend.
If I'm not mistaken, they were giving away those 10 Dollar Tennessee Lottery tickets. You know, the ones where they're giving something like 4 Million dollars away to four winners and only selling a certain number of tickets to keep the odds better?

I would figure that at least some copyright laws protecting the owner of the Lottery (State) would prevent just anybody from claiming to give you a chance at the Million when the Lottery is actually giving you the chance at a million.
At the same time... if the station gives you a ticket they've paid for (or bartered for) then, they are giving you the chance at a million, too, right?

Jeez...this reminds me of when the casinos first came to the area, yet we could NEVER mention "gambling."

Smart guys, 'hep me...what's the deal? ???

Thanks.
 
There might also be some Unfair Trade issues running in the background. If the station is trying to make it appear that THEY are giving away the cash, it might run afoul of Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act. See § 15 U.S.C. §1125(a). It might be a stretch, but, these things are fact-intensive.

Similarly, there could be some Trademark issues here, if the Tennessee Lottery’s mark is being misused. Again, facts and context are important.

Can you give away Lottery Tickets on air? I would think one could. See Greater New Orleans Broadcasting Assn. v. United States (1999). One should be able to give away anything, as long as it's legal. And, in this case, the ticket is the prize, so there is no second lottery going on here.

I trust they have vetted this through an attorney. But, again, I would have to hear it.

DE
 
See? I knew I could count on DE!
It's none of my business, but I knew I'd never heard that before.
Of course, I haven't lived in a lottery state very long, either!

I just heard the term, "What station gives you a chance at 1 million dollars?" during a phoner giveaway, and began to wonder. I'm sure they wouldn't have done it had they not had their bases covered.

Thanks!
 
The old way of discovering if something contained a lottery was to look for Prize, Chance, Consideration. If all three elements were present, it WAS a lottery. If any one element was missing, it was NOT a lottery. With the advent of our state lottery, this method became obsolete and darned near anything goes now, it seems.
 
Meepster said:
I don't know a great deal about legalities in radio these days (or any other days), but I have a question.
Is it legal for a station to give away lottery tickets as prizes?
Click to expand...
It's been a while, but generally if the lottery operates in their state, yes they can give away lottery tickets. Yes they can be "cute" when saying W*** is giving you a chance to win a million dollars, but it has to be made clear that the tickets are for the XXXX State Lottery. Usually all the legalities are built into the rules and can usually be found online. It can be tricky territory, but these kind of promotions have been going on for a long time and most of the mistakes possible have already been made.
 
Thank you ever so much.

Now, once again, "Prize, Chance, Consideration" is stuck in my head like an old TV theme song...

:eek:
 
Tynosaur said:
The old way of discovering if something contained a lottery was to look for Prize, Chance, Consideration. If all three elements were present, it WAS a lottery. If any one element was missing, it was NOT a lottery. With the advent of our state lottery, this method became obsolete and darned near anything goes now, it seems.
Click to expand...

He's right... but with the lottery tickets, there is no consideration. If they're giving it away on the air then there is only Prize and Chance, because the station has already paid, not the winner.

Sounds like things are in the clear to me.
 
There is also no chance, I would argue. You DEFINITELY receive the ticket, which has value, the prize itself.

If there is chance, it ain't at the station level.

DE
 
It's all legal and carefull orchestrated through the Tennessee Lottery as an on air promotion. The promotion was designed by the Tennessee Lottery and secured through there attorneys and is within State and Federal laws. ;)
 
To follow up...my apologies for the idiotic spelling! Geez! Secondly, tomorrow is the last day to win one so...be ready to call in! HA!
 
Nah! Never been much of a "caller", I was always a "call-ee". So, I bought some.
Now...the Harley could make me a caller. ;D
I heard something about that this past weekend, for sure.
 
Harley give away goes through June. Good luck!
 
I believe that the "prize-chance-consideration" (pay to play) rules are still in effect...unless the promotion is done in conjunction with a legal lottery or casino. Or at least that's the way I understand it.

greg hamilton
 
More clarification, or muddy-fication... The FCC has fined a Jonesboro station for airing fairly double-entendred mentions of the Missouri lottery. Apparently, if your state doesn't have a lottery, you can't run ads for another state's lottery.
 
robgrayson said:
More clarification, or muddy-fication... The FCC has fined a Jonesboro station for airing fairly double-entendred mentions of the Missouri lottery. Apparently, if your state doesn't have a lottery, you can't run ads for another state's lottery.
Click to expand...

If that were the case then why would the TN Lottery buy time on Hot 107.1 - KXHT which is 'techincly' an Arkansas station. I suppose the fact that it is dual-licensed would play into that?
 
Good point... Topo map shows their transmitter on the Arkansas side of the line... They would be well served to have their legal folks check the ruling mentioned as a guide to future endeavors. Maybe there is a "high water" exception. Since the state line is in the middle of the river, recently that would have placed it about Earle or so...
 
robgrayson said:
Good point... Topo map shows their transmitter on the Arkansas side of the line... They would be well served to have their legal folks check the ruling mentioned as a guide to future endeavors. Maybe there is a "high water" exception. Since the state line is in the middle of the river, recently that would have placed it about Earle or so...
Click to expand...


That’s absolutely a valid point. KXHT is not even “technically” an Arkansas station. It IS an Arkansas station with a city of license of Marion. It’s different entirely from KWAM, which also has K calls because the transmitter is on the Arkansas side but has a city of license as Memphis. I am sure the COL is the legal definition of where a station "is"...

regardless of what your definition of "is" is....
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom