I am starting a website where users predict individual match outcomes. I am thinking of rewarding them with a gift certificate. Is it legal. Any insight will be very helpful.
4. ELIGIBILITY: The Contest is open to individual students who are at least thirteen (13) years of age and no older than eighteen (18) years of age on November 22, 2010 who are currently enrolled in a pre-university, high school or secondary school program, and who have agreed to these Rules (“Participants”). You must demonstrate the consent of a parent or legal guardian in order to be eligible to receive any prizes as well as written proof of age and proof of enrollment in a pre-university, high school or secondary school program. The Contest is not open to residents of Cuba, Iran, Syria, North Korea, Sudan, Myanmar (Burma), or to other individuals restricted by U.S. export controls and sanctions, and is void in any other nation, state, or province where prohibited or restricted by U.S. or local law. Employees, interns, contractors, and official office-holders of (1) Google, (2) participating Open Source Organizations, (3) the parent companies, affiliates and subsidiaries of either Google or any participating Open Source Organization, and members of their immediate families (defined as parents, children, siblings and spouse, regardless of where they reside, and/or those living in the same household of each) are ineligible to participate in the Contest. You must have access to the Internet and either have or sign up for a free Google Account in order to enter.
If you are hosting your site in the US, this might fall under gambling statutes. Your options are probably: a) this is illegal just like other online casinos, or b) this isn't illegal but you may fall under contest regulations which are different from state to state. If you are hosting outside the US, you might fall under whatever gambling or contest statutes apply in that country.
Could you please elaborate why you consider it gambling or betting. All I am doing is picking the obvious winner from the participants and rewarding him for his expertise. Also I am not charging any money for participation. I am just trying to get more information to make the decision.
I wasn't sure what you meant by what you said regarding users picking outcomes - if it was something on the order of a lottery, that would probably be covered under betting laws. If it's something like a trivia quiz and whoever gets the most right answers wins, that would probably be covered under contest law, which is just as complex.
In the US at least, every state determines what is and isn't a contest and what rules apply, though most of them apply to any game where the reward is money or some sort of tangible item (even if players don't have to pay anything to play). That's why if you look closely, some of the fast food contests (like McDonalds Monopoly) say something in the fine print like "Not valid in New York or Rhode Island" or something to that effect. They've determined that their game won't meet the contest laws in those states so they simply say if you live there, you can't play.
It is hosted in US and winners could be outside the country. Either way it seems scary. May be just dump this feature. But again there are mixed responses.
Legal can sometime be a bit like coding, some laws in this domain are still changing (ie. France just recently allowed online casinos). My advise is use the most common denominator in your space, launch and tweak, it's like coding. That's what most successful companies have done. You don't get in much trouble until you have a certain level of success. Of course you need to have a good approach, good intentions and know what you are doing. But you can never really know it all, so that's my advice.
Btw if the users are paying, predicting the outcomes of a match is definitely gambling (like gambling on horses), so simply look at the laws for online gambling. Since it's online, most likely only the laws of the state where you host are applied (even for foreign countries, that's how French could play on online casinos before). You might simply host that feature and a subsidiary for it in a state with online-gambling friendly laws. Maybe Nevada, maybe some states or countries have no laws at all on it and even no taxes.
If it's free I'd say it either fall in (free) lottery or contest, it's hard to tell. Either way your best approach is simply host it in a state with no laws at all on the matter. Or if you have a good way to justify it is neither lottery or contest you might as well be fine anywhere.
The rewards is only for predicting the outcomes of the matches. But heard from friends that you need to check the legal aspect of it. Got concerned and wanted to double check and get HN user's feedback.
4. ELIGIBILITY: The Contest is open to individual students who are at least thirteen (13) years of age and no older than eighteen (18) years of age on November 22, 2010 who are currently enrolled in a pre-university, high school or secondary school program, and who have agreed to these Rules (“Participants”). You must demonstrate the consent of a parent or legal guardian in order to be eligible to receive any prizes as well as written proof of age and proof of enrollment in a pre-university, high school or secondary school program. The Contest is not open to residents of Cuba, Iran, Syria, North Korea, Sudan, Myanmar (Burma), or to other individuals restricted by U.S. export controls and sanctions, and is void in any other nation, state, or province where prohibited or restricted by U.S. or local law. Employees, interns, contractors, and official office-holders of (1) Google, (2) participating Open Source Organizations, (3) the parent companies, affiliates and subsidiaries of either Google or any participating Open Source Organization, and members of their immediate families (defined as parents, children, siblings and spouse, regardless of where they reside, and/or those living in the same household of each) are ineligible to participate in the Contest. You must have access to the Internet and either have or sign up for a free Google Account in order to enter.
http://www.google-melange.com/document/show/gci_program/goog...
Will I be covered if I add similar text on the Eligibility page/section on my app. Is there anything else that I need to consider.