Discriminative contests?

[Discon]

So I wanted to enter the "The Saboteur" sweepstakes, and what do you know, I can't, because I happen to have been born in Norway.

I've noticed this in a lot of contests, and I think it's wrong to leave someone out just because the company that's arranging the contest/sweepstakes to not allow anyone outside the US/UK/whatever into contests, just because they don't want to pay 30 or 40 dollars to ship it to the person.

What do you think about this?


*puts on fire-proof suit*

 

[Inverse Skies]

I can understand why they do it. It's a little annoying yeah but you can't blame them for it. It would be a lot of work to ship things internationally so it's just easier for them to avoid it.

 

[Gunner 51]

I know what you mean about such things, Discon. I would love to watch The Colbert Report again, but it's no longer available here in Britain. It's a little unfair to the rest of the world, but C'est la vie I suppose.

 

[oliveira8]

It's usually because of the laws in YOUR country, that you can't participate in such contests.

 

[Nunny]

Its horribly annoying... but theres nothing much that can be done about it.

 

[Katherine Kerensky]

It annoyed me in some of the earlier things. Like when they were asking for someone to review anime.
But I got over it, because the people/person/whatever they chose has talent. :3

 

[LopezMeister]

Is it possible that it's not The Escapist that distributes the prize(s) to the winner(s)? For some of the competitions I'd assume it's whoever is publishing the game that the comp is about or whatever else the prize is.

 

[Mekado]

So I wanted to enter the "The Saboteur" sweepstakes, and what do you know, I can't, because I happen to have been born in Norway.

I've noticed this in a lot of contests, and I think it's wrong to leave someone out just because the company that's arranging the contest/sweepstakes to not allow anyone outside the US/UK/whatever into contests, just because they don't want to pay 30 or 40 dollars to ship it to the person.

What do you think about this?


*puts on fire-proof suit*

It dosen't have anything to do with shipping costs, it has everything to do with local (national) gambling laws (a contest is gambling according to the law) which might be very complicated/restrictive in some countries, so instead of making different rules for different people, they make one rule for most people and the rest are hung out to dry

 

[teisjm]

Whining about some people getting free stuff while you don't is stupid.
It's not like recieving free stuff from random strangers is a human right or anything.

ps. I'm from Denmark, so i'm on the same boat as you. BUt i don't feel bad, unlike most of the other users teh government pays me (and every other adult student) almost 1000$ a month to study.

 

[wynnsora]

I guess we're both in the same boat. My dad was going to enter into the contest, in order to hopefully get us a new computer. If we didn't win either we would go, 'Hey! Free game!" or "Eh, it happens." So I checked the rules and everything for him, even though we live in the US, we can't enter either. We live in Florida, and the contest rules say:

Residents of FL, RI and NY are unable to participate

I'd like to know not only why they don't ship to other countries; but also why they don't send out to every state when they say, "US and UK only".