international terms-of-service lotteries sweepstakes
Why exclude 13 world countries from international sweepstakes or giveaways?
<p>Why are 13 countries excluded from various contests, giveaways, sweepstakes
run by many different types of organizations on the Web?</p>

<p>These countries are: Taiwan, South Korea, Portugal, Italy, Austria, China, Russia, Hong Kong, Greece, France, Japan, Spain, Czech Republic.</p>

<p>This is easily checked by searching the web with the following
keywords:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>-germany Taiwan, South Korea, Portugal, Italy, Austria, China, Russia, Hong Kong, Greece, France, Japan, Spain, Czech Republic</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Note that I have added <code>-germany</code> at the beginning to <em>exclude Germany</em>, so as
not to get any list of the world countries.</p>

<p>What kind of legal problems would the inclusion of these 13 countries
raise? I realize this may differ according to the concerned country.</p>

<p>This question may be related to the previous
<a href="https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/2306/soreadytohelp-international-giveaway-without-terms-and-conditions">#SOreadytohelp - international giveaway without terms and conditions?</a>. But
it is possibly more focussed in determining the precise reasons.</p>

<p>It is also interesting to note that most sites concerned by my remark do not seem to use the word "lottery" (not a systematic analysis, though ... and it may have other motivations).</p>

<p>Those countries have more restrictive gambling laws than others.<br>
For discussion of some of those relevant laws, see <a href="https://www.dlapiper.com/~/media/Files/Insights/Publications/2014/03/Prize_Promotions_of_the_World_Handbook_booklet_V12.pdf" rel="noreferrer">here</a>.<br>
For example, </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>[In Hong Kong], "Under the Gambling Ordinance, a prize draw is considered to be a form of lottery. Lotteries include raffles &amp; sweepstakes...<br>
  In most cases, prior approval is needed for a prize draw in the form of a licence and for the majority of competitions, this will need to be in the form of a Trade Promotion Competition Licence.
  Selling, disposing, printing and publishing tickets without a licence are criminal offences ... punishable by fines or imprisonment.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Because of Italy's strict restrictions,</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Unless a promotion falls under one of exceptions provided by the DPR, it is not possible to run multi-jurisdictional promotions, they need to be addressed only to people located in Italy and any activity, including the server, used for the promotion must be located in Italy.</p>
</blockquote>
