## Facts

- Continental Oil Company operated a service-station promotional game, “Brand in Orbit,” distributing free scratch-off cards to customers; the rules stated no purchase was necessary and participation was open to licensed drivers.
- Cards offered small cash prizes for certain scratch-off combinations and larger prizes if participants collected cards whose concealed words could be arranged into specified advertising slogans.
- Evelyn Geis accumulated hundreds of cards and claimed to have received two cards showing the word “HOT,” the control word for the slogan “Ride the Hot One,” worth $1,000; she testified the word appeared when scraped and then vanished, and her husband corroborated one occurrence.
- The Geises presented the cards and demanded the $1,000 prize; Continental refused, asserting the cards were illegible and not valid winners.
- Continental introduced evidence that authentic winning control cards had ultraviolet-discernible markings and related indentations, which the submitted cards allegedly lacked.

## Issues

1. Whether the promotional game constituted an illegal lottery under Utah law (prize, chance, and consideration), requiring dismissal and barring enforcement of any prize claim.
2. Whether the Geises complied with contest rules (including any legibility/authenticity requirements) so as to be entitled to the $1,000 prize.

## Decision

- The Utah Supreme Court reversed the judgment for the Geises and remanded with directions to dismiss the complaint.
- The court held the game was an illegal lottery because it contained prize, chance, and consideration.
- Because the underlying scheme was illegal, the court refused to enforce any claimed rights to prizes and did not reach the merits of whether the Geises satisfied the contest rules.
- The court addressed illegality on its own initiative, treating the issue as a matter of public policy.

## Legal Principles

- A lottery exists when a scheme includes (1) a prize, (2) awarded by chance, and (3) supported by consideration.
- “Consideration” for lottery purposes is not limited to a participant’s direct payment; an indirect economic benefit to the promoter, such as increased patronage generated by the promotion, can satisfy the consideration element.
- Courts will not enforce claims or contractual rights arising from an illegal transaction; participation in an illegal lottery creates no legally enforceable entitlement to promised prizes.
- An appellate court may consider the illegality of the underlying transaction even if the parties did not raise or brief the issue.

## Conclusion

The court concluded Continental’s promotion was an illegal lottery because it offered prizes distributed by chance and provided the company consideration through increased customer traffic, despite “no purchase necessary” language; consequently, the prize claim was unenforceable and the action had to be dismissed.


Geis v. Cont’l Oil Co., 511 P.2d 725 (Utah 1973)