A bill was introduced Friday that would affect the applicability of the Texas sweepstakes statute.  Texas Business and Commerce Code Ch. 622 regulates the advertising and administration of promotions that award prizes based on chance, or the random selection of entries.  It currently applies only to sweepstakes that are conducted through the mail (except where the mail is used exclusively for an entrant to submit an entry form), in which the most valuable prize has a value of $50,000 or more.

The new H.B. No. 2828, filed March 3 by Rep. René Oliveira, seeks to further limit the reach of Ch. 622 by excluding certain other sweepstakes from regulation.  The proposed exclusion is narrowly drafted to exclude high prize-value sweepstakes that are conducted under strict state supervision.  Specifically, the new exclusion applies only to a sweepstakes that has awarded at least one cash prize of $1 million or more in each of the preceding five calendar years, and is operated under a consent judgment or other agreement with the state by a person who has not been subject to a state enforcement proceeding regarding marketing practices during the preceding five years.  If it survives, the bill as introduced would become effective September 1, 2017.  

Read the language of the bill and track it’s progress here.