House OKs Bill Limiting Sweepstakes Mailings

The House moved to shield senior citizens and other consumers from sweepstakes mailings that suggest that they have to buy products to win prizes or that tell them they are winners when they are not. The measure, passed by voice, follows a 93-0 Senate vote in August on nearly identical legislation and hearings in spring at which elderly people told of spending their Social Security checks or squandering life savings as a result of misleading promises of riches. House Resolution 170, which has the backing of the Clinton administration, would require sweepstakes companies to make clear that no purchase is necessary to enter the contest and that buying magazine subscriptions or other goods does not improve the chance of winning. It would bar the mailings from declaring that a person is a winner unless he has won a prize, requires that the estimated odds of winning be prominently displayed and prohibits mailings to people who have requested in writing that they be taken off sweepstakes lists.