Loquax Launches Win a House Competition Watch
7 Comments October 12, 2008 / Posted in Loquax NewsOn October 16th the winner of the Oldborough Estate in Devon should be announced. This may spark further interest in the other win a house competitions that have popped up on the back of the Wilshaw’s success. From experience these kind of competitions always look good on paper, attract a bit of media interest, but ultimately fail! The Oldborough Estate being, so far, the only exception!
So how are the the other competitions fairing? We decided to create a special Win a House Competitions page to follow how Fellows Hall, The Devon Development, The Cheltenham House and others fair in this arena. Not only do we tell you the cost of the tickets and a bit about each competition, there’s also the total number of tickets sold and the number sold since our last check.
Loquax aren’t the only people taking an added interest in these competitions. The Gambling Commission are also starting to take a closer look at them too. In their latest report they warn that people setting up win a house style competitions run the risk of breaching The Gambling Act 2005. The concern regards just how much skill is required to enter these kind of competitions, and it’s generally felt that organisers are pushing the definition of skill right to the limit.
Analysis of the legality of The Oldborough Estate competition has been done at legal site Out-law and we wouldn’t be surprised to see legislation clarified for win a house competitions in the future.
One thing though is for certain, whoever is picked as the winner of a £1million Devon Estate on October 16th probably won’t actually give a damn about The Gambling Act.
Find out how the other win a house competitions are fairing on Win a House Competitions Watch!
Intresting that it’s not as easy as it appears with paypal setting these competitions up bothe fellowes hall (click on enter competition to see you can’t enter at the moment) and Devon Manor – http://www.winadevonmanor.co.uk/ (Another one for your list) can no longer accept payment at this time.
The draw for the devon estate has been put on hold while the gambling commission investigate, i believe this is because you could not get the question wrong, ie you would answer and the system would not take your money unless you answered correctly which gave you an entry without the risk of getting the question wrong, or at least thats my view and it will be interesting to see others.
Along with the rest of the ticketholders for the Devon competition I am dismayed at the very late intervention of the Gaming Commission. I smell the hand of vested interests….. It has to be said, the ‘copycats’ haven’t helped themselves by not following the rules. Some of the questions have been tooooo easy. Calling your competition something like, ” Raffle my ***** ” was bound to attract attention. I just hope the rules are not tightened to exclude any possibility of a prize competition ‘cos mine is 3 days away from launching.
I telephoned the gambling commission today and even they do not know what the rules mean, they say they are making a statement in due course, as for paypal i was told in no uncertain terms to remove OUR competition from OUR website or my paypal account would be suspended, that really was a no brainer i simply removed paypal from our website, thier loss (:
You may be interested in our interpretation of the Gambling Commission Guidelines. See http://www.sandbankslife.co.uk/news.htm
Well, http://www.winahousefor25pounds.com is now live. I believe it ticks all the boxes to comply with the prize draw rules. 7 questions to answer, (skill and knowledge) you pay before you are advised whether you got all the answers correct. (judgement). It has a twist in that the unsuccessful entrants get a FREE entry into a side competition for £1000. This may have better odds than the main competition. Comments?
[...] October 12th we told you that the Gambling Commission were starting to take an interest in win a house competitions. We also told you the 16th October would be the date when the winner of The Oldborough [...]