Just wondering - Can't join the ''1 Million USD'' contest if I live in Sweden?

Razrikiel · December 2015

The title says it all, I guess?
Can't we join the contest unless we live in one of the countries at the TOP of the country list in the online application for the Contest?
PS!
Not a rant post, just asking.

Xendyn · December 2015

There's many countries, regions and even a couple of US states that are not eligible because of their laws governing contests and lotteries.

ProfessorKittyhawk · December 2015

I've never seen a company run a contest with so many odd exclusions. It'd be easier to name the places that CAN enter than the ones that can't.

Selique · December 2015

Its not the company that excludes them, its the locations' governments.

Elsir · December 2015

ProfessorKittyhawk wrote: »

I've never seen a company run a contest with so many odd exclusions. It'd be easier to name the places that CAN enter than the ones that can't.

It's not really been heard of because it's never really been a huge issue until the Internet exploded into an ultra social one-body type thing. First I saw of this kind of thing was on Twitch where broadcasters were doing giveaways left and right and it was in fact giving them, as a business at Twitch, a lot of legal trouble because winners of broadcaster giveaways lived in countries where lotteries based purely on "chance" with no ability to enhance your own chances of winning (like multiple entries or the like) was actually illegal in those countries, and even some states within the US itself. Since it was becoming so big for companies and community members to want to "give back" in this manner, it became more and more apparent. I'm sure companies in the past could have gotten away with sweep stakes type things when it wasn't as known, albeit slightly difficult on an individual basis when it came time to pay out to that winner in a state/country that had laws against such competition winnings, but being that it would have been sorted out privately at that point, nobody heard or cared. Now, it's almost "Internet law" (actual law, not 'rules of the internet' stuff) that you HAVE to make these conditions of a competition clearly known as to who cannot enter.

Razrikiel · December 2015

Thank you all for the insightful answers.
The funny thing is; I was worried there for a moment, THINKING THAT maybe there is a technical error with my ESO account or something, and that I might be the only player barred from the competition

Anyways, I understand the reasoning behind this decision; If Sweden (or any other country) doesn't accept the terms of the Contest with Zenimax, than how are they (The Publishers/Developers) supposed to include us in any sort of competition in our home countries.
Honestly, that makes perfect sense.
But if that's the case, than the only thing that irks me (JUST A LITTLE BIT) is the fact that EVEN THOUGH only 10 countries (OUT OF about 189-196 countries in the entire world) are able to join the competition, the rest (thus at least about 179 countries) are ''forcefully'' left out of the competiton (from an ESO player's perspective), AND YET the advertisement for the 1million$$ even is commercialized/published as if it truly *is* an event in which EVERY ESO player can partake... which it is not.
(CORRECT ME IF I AM WRONG, THAT MAYBE EVEN I CAN JOIN THE COMPETITION (whatchamacallit) FROM MY COUNTRY. I do not think that I am a person who is 100% correct 100% of the time

)

**Anyways, no harm done**.
LOL I have NO LUCK with such things anyways.
Last cristmas I was in a competition to win a prize. There were about 25 people in the locale, and there were 24 prizes to be won, from things that were deemed to be ''more valuable'' to things that were more like; ''consolidatory prizes''.
And guess what?
Out of 25 people, I was the only one that didn't get anything HEHEHEH

See, as my luck would have it, I wouldn't have won a dime, anyways (IF I was allowed to partake in this 1m$$ contest).
But IMHO the game is great, so at least there's that

AlnilamE · December 2015

The best way to find out would be to get the rules of the contest and send them to your national government representative (a member of Parliament, I think in Sweden?) and ask them which law prevents ZOS from including Swedish users in the contest.

ProfessorKittyhawk · December 2015

It just seems unfair that we can't enter a contest because of our state or country's laws. And I get the million dollars is to tie into their whole million reasons to play campaign, but could they not have found more suitable reward(s) to enable EVERYONE to be able to enter? Be it a million crowns or million gold in game, or just a collection of all the rare motifs or whatever. Running a big contest luke this with so many people left out just feels like a slap in the face.

Idinuse · December 2015

What's bugging me in the case of excluding Sweden is, that we used to have restrictions on gambling, it used to be strictly something governmentally controlled (much like the monopolized right to sell liquors in stores). What some of us who are Swedes may have a little tough time to understand is that this has all been lifted and changed since many years now. (No not in regard of liquors, can you imagine...)

Any type of online lottery, lotto and casinos are nowadays allowed, so an impression that someone didn't do the research in full comes to mind. On the other hand it might well be that the awarder of the prize may have to pay the lottery winnings taxes for the prize, not the winner, I'm uncertain of this, but it's a possibility albeit strictly speculative.

It's all purely of an academic interest though, since ZOS or Bethesda are in full right to exclude residents of a region or country just for being unsure of the rules and regulations, or finding them not worth while, as far as I know.

In any case I personally am fine with that, not much one can do about it anyway, I wish the participants best of luck.

Elsir · December 2015

As far as Sweden goes (and probably other countries), this sweepstake would fall under "Promotional/Marketing" (Million Reasons to Play promotion) which in Sweden requires a specific license that is not granted to International entities such as Zenimax, a US company, to host such competitions. That is, if I have read the laws correctly with the best of my ability to look into this specifically.