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It was once said that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could reproduce the works of shakespeare... Now thanks to the internet we know that this is not true
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No programmer can pick up a TV remote without thinking what it would take to add a stun gun. [...] Their motto is 'if it ain't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet
Posted by: x Foman123 x
Disclaimer for the unfamiliar: I am not a Bungie employee and do not speak officially for Bungie, Microsoft, or anybody else except myself.
Anyway, you're confusing consideration with eligibility.
A sweepstakes is not required to be open to all persons. Any sweepstakes may restrict its eligibility. And indeed, most do. For example, most sweepstakes in the U.S. restrict eligibility to U.S. residents, and/or by age, and/or by state, and/or by non-employees of the corporation conducting the giveaway.
Another pertinent factor that may be used is current subscribers to a certain service or owners of a certain product. This occurs all the time -- you can easily do a Google search and find thousands of sweepstakes restricted in this way.
This particular "sweepstakes" or "giveaway" is restricted to current owners of Halo: Reach and subscribers to XBox Live. No additional purchase is necessary to enter this sweepstakes, and any current subscriber/owner may enter completely free of charge.
This general idea can even be applied to sweepstakes that are purportedly open to "the general public." Using your misleading and overly restrictive interpretation, even those contests are not REALLY open to the general public. Much like RT noted, a radio "7th caller wins" or whatever contest requires the entrant to have a telephone to be eligible, but does not require the purchase of a telephone in order to win. Even a sweepstakes that lets you write in on a postcard to enter for free is eligibility-restricted only to those who have a stamp, or who are literate.
At any rate, you're conflating the two factors of "eligibility" and "consideration," which is what's leading to your confusion.
There is also a considerably persuasive argument that this contest is a skill game, not a game of chance. Though there is some element of chance involved, it could be equally argued that the "chance" is indirect and incident to winning the contest (i.e., chance will only get you so far), and the only true way to win is through skill. While chance may get you into the match with the Bungie employee, you must display skill to win the steak. This is no different than numerous other skill games. A coin flip determines who gets the first move in a chess tournament, but only the player's skill can result in a win.
If this is a game of skill, as you must know from all of the links you provided, then this contest is automatically not a "lottery" or "sweepstakes" regardless of whether purchase is necessary or not.
Either way, the rules of this contest do not make it illegal by any means.
This should solve your problem and answer your questions in their entirety.
Coming from a lawyer I say OP got owned