Opinion: Sweepstakes to curb false lure

This week's multistate settlement with Publishers Clearing House will curb the worst abuses of a predatory industry. The company agreed to tone down its come-ons, forbid the use of deceptive tactics and inform customers in plain terms they don't need to buy to win. The protections are the minimum the buying public deserves, and the government should monitor the deal to ensure compliance.

Wisconsin, which took the lead by suing Publishers Clearing House in 1999, deserves credit, along with Florida and 24 other states, for demanding more than a separate multi-state settlement achieved last year. The company will pay $34-million in restitution and fines -- nearly double the original settlement. The sweeping nature of Tuesday's agreement also could fundamentally change the industry's business practices.

Two concessions are especially important. The company cannot use enticing language to imply a sweepstakes entrant is likely to win. That removes a tool solicitors use to entice customers, many of them elderly, to purchase magazines, flowers and other items in hopes of improving their chances. The company will no longer use statements like "guaranteed winner," and will be barred from using phony checks, false statements, fictional characters and personalized letters to misrepresent one's chances of winning.

And just as important, the company will take steps to ensure its customers understand that winning is a long-shot. It must disclose that all entrants have the same chance whether they purchase goods or not. Disclosure alone won't protect everyone who is gullible or vulnerable enough to fall for aggressive marketing. But at least sweepstakes recipients will be better informed.

Attorney General Bob Butterworth did Floridians a service by making the sweepstakes crackdown a priority, and the assistant attorney general for Florida who handled the case, Victoria Butler, deserves credit for insisting on a meaningful settlement. The humiliation caused to many by aggressive sweepstakes marketing, chronicled in recent years by the St. Petersburg Times, gives the government good reason to monitor the industry's compliance with the terms of the settlement. We know what the industry's word has been worth in the past.

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