[NFCB] membership requirements for ticket giveaways?

[Read, Aaron]

Actually, this is something I've often wondered about...since many stations are near a state's border, which law applies?  The law for your city of license, or the law for where your licensee is incorporated / organized / registered / whatever?
 
I assume the latter but I could envision the former, although I'd have to think it'd be a nightmare for those stations with signals in multiple states (a not un-common occurance in the Northeast US).  For stations in NYC (for example) I imagine this could be a real concern if you COL is in New Jersey but your studios are in New York state, or vice versa.
 
- Aaron

________________________________

From: nfcb-bounces at mailman.lmi.net on behalf of Ken Freedman
Sent: Tue 2/26/2008 10:43 AM
To: June Fox
Cc: nfcb at mailman.lmi.net
Subject: Re: [NFCB] membership requirements for ticket giveaways?



This is a useful guideline for sure but I'm not sure it's 100% correct.
SInce lotteries are governed by state law, there are fifty different laws.
And some states have no lottery laws (but most do). Unless you or your
attorney has checked your state laws governing lotteries, you're best bet is
to avoid doing ANY KIND OF CONTEST in which the winners are limited to
members or donors.

This would mean: no contests of chance ("the tenth caller"), no contests of
judgement (where skill or a judge or judges comes into play), no contests of
popularity or other algorithm. You get the idea.

As far as the IRS, I readily admit that I am not positive what they have to
say on this matter. The overriding concern is state law. I recall that the
IRS *may* have had something to say on this matter as well, but even if they
did make a ruling, the IRS rules may have changed.

I apologize for being terse but as Chuck mentioned, it's marathon time here.
And no more hideous embarrassing defenses of me!! Sheesh!

-Ken

On Tue, Feb 26, 2008 at 7:20 AM, June Fox <jfox at deiworksite.org> wrote:

> In order for something to be a lottery, three things must be in place:
>        1.  Prize
>        2.  Chance
>        3.  Consideration
>
> Remove any ONE and you no longer have a lottery.
>
>
> Clearly, you aren't going to get rid of the prize!
>
> Unless everyone who calls gets the prize, you can't get rid of chance.
>
> So the only thing left to delete is consideration.
>
>
> When you require your winners to be members, you are requiring
> consideration.
>
> So, in order to avoid the lottery issue, you cannot require your winners
> to be members (unless, of course, you are removing one of the other
> elements from the mixture.)
>
> June
>
> --
> H. June Fox, Director
> DEI Station Relations
> 10420 Artemel Lane
> Great Falls, VA 22066
> Phone:  703-759-2221
> Fax available - please call first
> Web:  http://www.deiworksite.org <http://www.deiworksite.org/> 
>
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>
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>



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