Hi everyone, thank you for your assistance in advance! I wanted to ask if what happened for an online lottery was legal or if any laws were broken. For some context, there was a Pop-up Event for a web series called Alien Stage here in Ontario and during the event, there was a chance for fans to win a signing opportunity to meet the creators of Alien Stage and receive an autograph.

Publicly, there were two ways people can win. One was getting draws each time you spend a certain amount of money during the Pop-up. My question specifically is for the second way fans can win.

The organizers for the event posted on Instagram that 12 people can win a signing opportunity by participating in an Online Check-in Lottery. I attached pictures of the rules, both from Instagram and Discord. From my understanding, the rules clearly stated that this was a lottery and winners will be selected by random draw.

Winners in general weren't accounced publicly to protect their identity, which I understand. But people noticed that many influencers/content creators were posting about being able to go to the signing opportunity. When someone asked one of the influencers how they won, they told them that they all won from the online lottery specifically.

I'm not sure about the odds of that happening, but this issue was brought up to the organizers and they were asked about the selection process since it didn't seem random at that point. During this time, people also found out that one of the influencers got to win and go to the signing opportunity twice when the organizers clearly stated that each person can only receive and redeem one autograph opportunity. This was also brought up to the organizers.

We later got an official statement/apology from the organizers from Discord in which I also attached here. I'm confused because their initial rules about the online lottery being random are clear and it was publicly posted to be a lottery which also implies that it's random draw. But in their statement, they're now saying that the opportunity was not a random raffle? I tried to find any rules stating that the criteria/selection would be based off creativty, effort, content quality, and overall presentation, but I can't seem to find the information anywhere publicly, both prior to and after the official statement was posted. Did they change the rules out of nowhere and only informed us of it now, only after people questioned them? Is that legal? Or if someone can help me find the information about the rules, posted publicly, I would also appreciate that because I might be wrong and I apologize in advance.

As well, in the official statement, the organizers stated that some of the influencers/cosplayers that were hired for the event were given a cosplay-related event arrangement to receive the signing opportunity. I understand that content creators should be awarded for their hard work and effort. But the organizers commented publicly that 'However, each person can only receive and redeem one autograph opportunity overall, even if selected through multiple activities.' in one of their posts. Is it legal to allow someone to receive and redeem more than one opportunity when the organizers publicly commented the opposite of this?

Thank you for taking the time to read this long post! I'm just really confused and lost since the official statement from the organizers seem to contradict a lot of their initial rules posted publicly and I was wondering if that was legal. Thank you in advance for the advice as well! If I wasn't clear about anything, please let me know and I'll try my best to answer. Thank you again! 🙂

Questions/Advice Appreciated About Rules For An Online Lottery