Okay, so I know you've mentioned that it's "complicated" (@Gedden), but how the hell is it impossible for Pox to be able to get tournaments together while every other card game I play seem to do it without any real complications (ie MtG, YGO, ...Pokemon).
they are working on the legal issues and will have it up, unless you understand USA law and know anything that would help them this thread is pointless
I have no understanding of US law so if anyone could explain it to me in layman terms I would like that. (No all of US law, just the gambling part that causes it to be a problem for Pox)
i believe the part that gets drafts deemed as "gambling" is how you put "money" in with the potential to get the same "money" out, with a few random factors in between. some US states have more stringent gambling laws (due to having more gambling in those states), and thus drafts get caught in the overall net furthermore, i think that the bigger companies and corporations more or less threw money at the issue to get around it. but i really have no idea at that point.
From previous conversations, they need to get it all checked and confirmed by a good legal person, because if they break laws pox could be shut down. Remember pox is a global game and the laws differ by state/country
Banshee: The way US law works is that some topics are legislated by the federal government (what you call US law), there are many other topics that are legislated at the state level, such as property rights (outside of the right to own property). Gambling and gaming are pushed to the slate for legislation. That's why we don't have Casinos in every state, although that's not the laws from state to state are not Yes gamble or No gamble, but somewhere in between. So each state will have different laws concerning gambling and different definitions of what constitutes gambling and what does not. The more strict interpretations are the states that are problematic for things such as online tournaments. They are interpreting that buying a ticket, then having chance dictate what that ticket bought you, is gambling and therefore disallowed.
The hangup would appear to be "giving something of value for the opportunity to benefit from a contest of skill is gambling within the statute and anyone who promotes or benefits from the same is guilty of a misdemeanor" which is part of lots of stupid laws governing protecting the public from the unscrupulous evils of gambling. Unless, of course, the gambling benefits the state as it does in Arizona and many other states. So, to recap, Arizona doesn't want to have anyone injured by a risk-free opportunity because somebody can construe a way that a company could take advantage of people. Yet, they aggressively push scratchers and lottery games which absolutely take advantage of people and do real harm to the community. Fewer laws and simpler ones would be nice. Personally, I think we could resolve a lot of woes if we just created a limited open season on lawyers (which coincidentally include a large number of the politicians, lobbyists and chief executives who are also hated in this country). Keep the time frame short and we'd have to have a bag limit, of course. Still, I think it might encourage a more public spirited approach to laws and legal endeavors.
I am by no means an expert on gambling law and I may be wrong but I am pretty certain that the issue is not with the cost of entry but with the giving of a prize. It basically comes down to taxes. Anything given as a prize that has a cash value is usually taxed. For example if you win the Lottery you will be taxed between 35-55% of the prize money. This area of low is very loosly written and VERY confusing. Another example would be back when Oprah gave away a new car to everyone in her audience on live TV. Even though the cars were freely given, people in the audience still had to pay almost $6000 dollars in registration taxes. As has been previously stated, the laws vary state to state which only make things more confusing especially when you try to determine what can be defined as having a cash value. Even though the prizes given in Pox would be very small and likely have next to no cash value if any at all, they are still forced to abide by the same laws governing much larger prizes.
But what is the taxable value of a single rune? For a pack it could be the tax of the value the Owls sell it for, but what about something that doesn't really have a defined price?
I remember the faq from soe's draft stating that the valuable goods (1$ each) were the tickets themselves, and runes and such were just "in game items" as in they had no value. I guess the main problem here is the return prize of tickets.
Then ditching the entry fee would do the trick, wouldn't it? Everyone gets one free shot per month or something. First three get something, rest had fun. Or you have to bring your own "sealed packs", which wouldn't be an admission fee, since you'd take them back home again. You could draft, but then ignore the draft process and just give out the cards that were in the packs at the end.
