On-Line Contest's Discrimination against non-US contestents

[the_green_dragon]

I was just logging onto the new contest here at the escapist and was just reading the rules. I went straight to the part on eligibility to enter and surprise surprise, unless you live in the USA or Canada you couldn't win.

I live in Australia and I can't seem to enter any of the contests I want to enter just because I live on this little island. All the cool stuff seems to only be for USA and Canada, does this bother anyone else? I mean I would love to win some World of warcraft stuff or League of Legends stuff. Heck, even that new Sega game.

It's almost like racism of sorts....

EDIT: I would really love to be able to enter some contests.... please?

 

[Mr Thin]

Or because it's a pain in the ass to ship outside those countries?

It's not racism or discrimination if it's more difficult, it's just good business.

 

[pyrothedemon]

Whenever someone holds a contest, they have to follow all the laws in the territories that contest is valid for. The US and Canada have reasonable blanket laws so it isn't too much of an issue, but most companies(practically all of them) can't be bothered to make sure they're following all kinds of international laws and such.

 

[LordMarcusX]

Most contests in the US don't even allow Canadian entry, and vice-versa. Hell, some STATES don't allow certain types of interstate contests within the US.

It's all about the international law, not about Australia being peopled entirely by criminals.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well you should have learned from games by now that all non Americans are evil and thus they can't partake because they would only use those prizes to decorate their hollowed out volcano of evil!

The other reasons might be shipping and legal issues, and trust me you don't want to have any in the US.