Can you require a purchase to enter a giveaway?

Last reviewed 2026-08-05

Where the winner is drawn by chance, a required purchase supplies consideration, and a prize awarded by chance for consideration is the classic description of a lottery, which private parties generally cannot run in the United States or Canada. The alternatives creators use are a purchase route alongside a genuinely free one of comparable weight, or a judged promotion with no chance element — which changes the legal classification without removing the need to check the rules that apply to skill contests. Requirements vary by state and province, so treat this as general education rather than a determination about your promotion.

General information published by Dollar Fan Club — not legal advice. Read the full notice.

Four structures cover almost every version of this question. Find yours in the table, then read the note under it.

Why the purchase-only version fails

A prize awarded by chance to entrants who gave up something of value is a lottery. A purchase is the plainest form of that value — see consideration. Nothing in the wording of the post changes the mechanics, and the reasoning applies equally to a donation, an entry fee, or a paid tier.

The version with a free route

"Buy the thing and you're entered" is the structure that depends entirely on the free alternate method of entry sitting next to it. How to build that route — what counts as consideration, what makes a free route real, and how to word it — is the whole subject of "no purchase necessary" explained, so read that page rather than a summary of it here.

The contest alternative

Removing chance changes the classification rather than removing the analysis. Entries judged against published criteria by identifiable judges are generally assessed as a skill contest rather than a lottery, and skill contests carry their own requirements — how much genuine skill is involved, whether the jurisdiction treats mixed skill-and-chance promotions as gambling, entry-fee restrictions, and disclosure obligations. Some jurisdictions are permissive here and others are not, so this is a question for advice in the specific places you are open to, not a route we would describe as generally available. See sweepstakes vs contest vs lottery.

Reading the table above

The first three rows describe how the consideration element is generally analysed. The fourth is a different legal question, and the "workable?" column in every row is our reading of risk rather than a determination published by any regulator.

What we would keep in your template

Sources

• 18 U.S.C. § 1302 — Mailing lottery tickets or related matter — Cornell Legal Information Institute · Statute — Tier 1
• Florida Statutes § 849.094 — Game promotion in connection with sale of consumer products or services — The Florida Senate · Statute — Tier 1

Terms used on this page

• Consideration
• Lottery
• AMOE (alternate method of entry)
• Contest (skill contest)

Related guides

• "No purchase necessary" explained for creators — What consideration means, what makes a free alternate method of entry real rather than decorative, and how to word the free route in a post and in the rules.
• Sweepstakes vs contest vs lottery: what creators are actually running — Three promotion types defined by prize, chance, and consideration — how US and Canadian law treats each, and the labels that do not change what you are running.
• Can subscribers or paid members receive giveaway entries? — Paid memberships and giveaway entries can coexist, but lawfulness turns on structure. What sits alongside member entry, which variants raise exposure, and where the law is unsettled.

Continue reading

• Do giveaways actually grow followers? — Creator growth and fan retention