New Law Targets Misleading Contest Mailings

Tired of getting sweepstakes entry forms that suggest you’ve already won a prize?

Starting next year California law will allow sweepstakes companies to identify someone as a winner only when they are really a winner.

“Misleading statements and false promises by sweepstakes companies have lured people into purchasing items they may not want or need,” said Gov. Pete Wilson.

“Some people have spent considerable amounts of their own money to try to collect their promised winnings, only to find that they have been part of a scam.”

Wilson announced Tuesday that he had signed legislation that prohibits statements that tend to mislead recipients of sweepstakes solicitations to believe they have won a prize when they have not.

The bill by Sen. Steve Peace (D-El Cajon) requires sweepstakes entry solicitations to include a prominent statement that no purchase is necessary to enter.

And it mandates that each participant has an equal chance of winning, whether or not they buy the product or service.

Wilson cited the case of a Victorville man, Richard Lusk, 88, who flew to Florida thinking he had won a prize, only to be told that hundreds of thousands of identical solicitations had been mailed.

“It is shameful that people like Richard Lusk are ridiculed for understandably assuming that they are a prize winner when they are sent notifications stating just that,” Wilson said.

The legislation takes effect Jan. 1.