Posted on 04/08/2015 10:45:43 AM PDT by drewh
Guess how much ESPN is worth these days…
A) $10 billion B) $25 billion C) $50 billion
If you answered C, you win a gold star…which is about all that 12-year-old Sam Holtz of Illinois will take home after winning ESPN’s bracket challenge. One problem: Said challenge is supposed to pay $20,000 and a trip to Maui to a randomly-drawn winner among the top 1%. But because Sam is only 12, he’s ineligible to be considered for the prize.
Rules are rules — that’s understood. In this case, Sam used his Dad’s email address to enter his picks. But ESPN could slam-dunk this situation in a hurry by simply stating while the sixth grader isn’t eligible for his winnings now, he can use the money–put away in a trust–to apply toward a college education or trade school at age 18. As for the trip, that too can be used upon graduation. It almost makes too much sense…
How awesome was Sam’s bracket performance, by the way? He missed only six games on the entire bracket – and scored a perfect 100 percent on games played in the Sweet 16, Elite 8, Final 4 and the Championship (a 68-63 Duke win over Wisconsin). But instead of paying him in some capacity, the Chicago Tribune reports SportsCenter offered to let him anchor an episode of the show. His mother told a local paper (The Daily Herald) she plans on keeping Sam home from school today because ESPN (and other outlets) are begging for interviews. In other words, the network plans on exploiting the situation–which it will portray itself otherwise as doing cool stuff for the kid instead–that will be of little cost to the most profitable channel in the history of television.
“I’m irritated,” Holtz told the Daily Herald. “Yes, I’m still proud of my accomplishment, but I’m not happy with the decision.”
Nor should he. ESPN had a chance here to take an awkward situation and turn it into PR gold. Instead, they blow an easy layup on their way to looking like the cheapest rich guy on the block.
“The great thing is that this kid beat all these experts out there,” ESPN spokesman Kevin Ota explains. “He beat all of our commentators, all these celebrities, all the college experts. That’s what makes this so awesome. The prize really is secondary.”
When you’re worth $50 billion, maybe a mere $20,000 and a trip to Maui can be characterized as “secondary.”
Tell the various states that. Somebody posted the laws from one state already and they don’t seem to rely on the risk of money, but instead on the chance to win money.
Which works fine in fiction. Out in reality they’d lose their license if they got caught doing that.
I’ll defer to any knowledge you have of Nevada gaming but that would be pretty stupid of the authorities if you ask me.
ESPN is run by liberals and sports “journalist” are more liberal than others.
And since we know liberals are STUPID it doesn’t surprise me they won’t (they will eventually) pay this kid.
First, they should make sure no one under 18 can play. Second, if they do they should make it a scholarship to a school (community college, tech school, university).
Frankly, I hate ESPN. It’s awful and hard to watch.
Not at all. Because no matter how you slice that scenario there was an underage person gambling, so any way you come up with to pay them breaks the law since it was broken before she ever won. Your only “workaround” there is to find a way to say it wasn’t the minor gambling, which would basically mean paying some overage person with her. Of course with all the cameras in a casino that wouldn’t really work either since there’s clear evidence it was a minor running the machine. Even in states that allow gambling the laws are written under the assumption that where gambling is happening is a den of iniquity and minors must be protected from the horrible things happening there. Just look at where the “no minors” line is painted at your average race track, usually a good 20 to 50 feet away from the windows.
If age is a problem then they shouldn’t let them play if under 18.
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F___ ESPN!
The crappiest network of them all.
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ESPN shouldn’t let just an email address enter then. If they are worried about people under 18 entering they should require a credit card and charge $.01 so they can confirm age.
They don’t, he used his dads email account.
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>> “He should have just lied about his name, his parentage, his country of birth and his citizenship and he would have been okay.” <<
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That’s cuz he would have been President!
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I pointed out above that an email address is a weak way to determine age eligibility.
Yes. So? It is not their job to police the users, all they can do is make sure the winners are abiding by the rules set forth.
It would be wrong and unfair to give this kid, who broke the rules, the prize when millions of other minors did not even get a chance to win it because they followed the rules and did not enter.
he didn't comply with the rules. He didn't meet the age rule
That was the most obvious solution to me as well.
You may be right (and probably are especially since it would allow greedy governments to confiscate wealth), but I just thought that to be legally considered gambling, there had to be some money at risk by the participant.
I’m just guessing here, but I think the bigger reason for excluding minors is that ESPN likely requires winners of contests such as these to allow their names, likenesses, etc. to be used by ESPN for promotions. That might be problematic for minors since such contracts are likely not binding upon minors. Like I said, though, that’s just a guess.
As so often happens in law definitions are fluid. Especially when crossing the minor line, what states consider gambling for minors they might not consider gambling for adults.
Image and likeness probably plays into it too. Minors preset a large and convoluted can of legals worms best left unopened.
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