The situation has so far mirrored aspects of the Devon Oldborough Retreat competition, where a winner was finally picked after months of discussions with the Commission. Similarly, the outcome seems to hinge on whether the contest is considered a genuine prize competition or a form of illegal lottery. If it deems a competition to impose an insufficient level of skill and judgment from players, the Commission reserves the right to prosecute its organisers for running an illegal raffle.

Just like Oldborough Retreat, the Sandbanks Life competition required players to answer questions correctly in order to qualify for the top prize. The intention is then to pick a winner randomly amongst all the correct entries received during the competition. With so much information easily accessible on the Internet within a few clicks of the mouse, balancing the requirements of the Gambling Act with the objective of selling a large number tickets online can be challenging for this type of competition. At what point does it become a pure game of chance if a large number of players answer the questions correctly?

Although the organisers of the Oldborough Retreat competition were finally allowed to proceed with their draw in May 2009, the Gambling Commission was quick to publish a paper warning that "the circumstances in every case are different and a decision over prosecution in one case will not necessarily set a precedent for others."

According to an interview published on the Bournemouth Echo website last Friday, it appears progress has been made and Vivid Construction Ltd, the organisers of the Sandbanks Life competition, feel confident they can now proceed with the draw: “the organisers say it has taken until now for them to feel satisfied that the draw can go ahead without fear of repercussions – but they still haven’t set the date.”

According to the report, they are now working through the entries to determine the final cash prize: “there have been some requests for refunds and we need to sort that out to ensure we get the correct figure for the actual prize money.”

We’ll keep you posted on how things develop and look forward to announcing the details of a winner as soon as they are published.

What do you think? Does this suggest that running any type of question-based house competition still carries a risk that the Gambling Commission may consider it to be a form of illegal lottery? Does this rely on how difficult the questions are, or on using a different mechanism to administer entries (such as an time-limited quiz) – or both? Alternatively, if you are thinking of running your own house competition, would you rather opt for a different game of skill, such as Spot the Ball or Sudoku? We would also be interested in any feedback from players, particularly whether this influences your choice of house competitions to enter.

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Comments & Opinions

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Gosh

I didn't realise this saga was about to repeat itself! Good news it's going forward after all... as a player I know spot the ball has been used for ages so I prefer to stay safe personally

Blondie , 09 Nov 2009

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quiz?

I don't know the ins and outs of this but isn't it ok to do a quiz where players have to answer questions as fast as possible? At least you can pick the best player that way? Also means it's harder to find the answers quickly if the questions change every time.

I guess one issue is making sure the quiz is fair to all players, i.e. questions are always of similar difficulty. They manage to do it for exams so I'm guessing it's possible somehow

Ronaldinho , 09 Nov 2009

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Re: quiz?

Good point 'Ronaldinho'

Some exams at my son's university allow students to take their text books into the room so I guess it's not that different from being able to find the answers through google etc. If it's against the clock I would have thought that's more of a competition than if you just present a few questions, but I don't know if the gambling commission look at things in that way for house competitions...

derren , 09 Nov 2009

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Sandbanks

At least they've been quite good at updating people on their site... It's frustrating to have to wait like this but I'm hopeful it will all be sorted soon.. nice bit of cash in time for xmas would be nice :)

Joanna , 09 Nov 2009

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Re: quiz?

@ Ronaldinho

We've come across some house competitions that are based on quizzes in the UK and in the US. It will be interesting to see if any are challenged by the GC, however in principle they should have a stronger case.

As a player, if you didn't have any of these concerns; would you prefer to enter a quiz or other types of competitions (such as Spot the Ball like Blondie)?

Team Win House , 09 Nov 2009

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Re: quiz?

I don't really mind as long as it's not too hard to enter - I've never been very good at quizzes but that's not to say I wouldn't have a go

yellow , 10 Nov 2009

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