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From: fvance@airgun.wg.waii.com (Frank Vance)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: MIR Revisited
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Date: 7 Feb 91 18:55:43 GMT
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Other's comments:

>[Moderator's Note: Not only is it void in NY, FL and RI, it may be
>void everywhere by now if the latest news report is accurate.
>Supposedly the guys running it have been found guilty.  PAT]

>The US shortwave station WWCR 7520 KHz just reported at about 5:00 UTC
>2-7-90 that two gentlemen have been convicted of violation of Texas
>sweepstakes laws due to their 1-900 marketing of a sweepstakes to win
>a crewmember position on a Russian space mission.

The true story is that they were arrested 2/6/91, after failing to
heed the warnings of the district attorney's office.  The district
attorney contends that under the laws of the State of Texas, they are
not running a sweepstakes, but a lottery, and lotteries are illegal.
As I understand it, if they would cease collecting money on the
telephone calls to register, everything would be kosher.

According to the {Houston Chronicle}, they were charged with promotion
of gambling, which is a third degree felony, and were later released
on $2,000 bond each.  As far as I can determine, No one is questioning
the legitimacy of the prize itself.


Frank Vance  (713) 963-2426	Western Geophysical
fvance@airgun.wg.waii.com	10001 Richmond Avenue
 ...!uunet!airgun!fvance	Houston, TX 77042   USA