Swims with entry lotteries, beware!
Leonard_Jansen
Charter Member
Just when you think the world can't get any crazier... (from the web)
**The organizers of the New York City Marathon have been sued by two runners who said the use of a lottery to decide who gets to race in the world's largest marathon is illegal.
In a proposed class-action lawsuit filed on Thursday in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Utah residents Charles Konopa and Matthew Clark said the nonprofit New York Road Runners Inc violated New York's constitution by operating a lottery because only the state itself can run chance-based lotteries.
The plaintiffs seek $10.56 million of damages, or twice the estimated amount collected from several hundred thousand runners who from 2010 to 2015 paid $11 nonrefundable fees to try to qualify for the marathon.
They also want an injunction against further lotteries until the Road Runners comply with state gaming laws. Both plaintiffs said they paid to enter the marathon lottery and did not win.**
Bad Craziness.
-LBJ
“Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.” - Oscar Wilde
Comments
Call it a ballot then. Ballots aren't lotteries. Just like Aunts aren't Gentlemen....
The $11 fee is labeled a processing fee and is charged to everyone, including those who qualify automatically for entries. That is their defense against the frivolous lawsuit.
Silliness! When a race has many more wanting to enter than they can offer slots, it seems a reasonable and fair way to decide who should be admitted. I ran New York in 1991, and the procedure then was a race to mail postal entries. Those who didn't get slots b/c entries weren't received needed to wait for a lottery. But as someone living nearer NYC than, say someone in California, I had a better chance of getting in by mailing my entry quickly than someone in LA. So the lottery allows everyone the same opportunity.
There are ways, of course, that people can bypass race lotteries. For instance, in a local Philly race, the Broad Street Run, if you belong to the Mid=At;antic USATF, MAUSATF officials have some kind of process whereby runners who don't make the lottery can still compete -- or for Boston Light Swim,, I believe, volunteering one year gets you past the following year.
Not something I'd get my feathers ruffled over.
How funny. Just ordered that book! Love PGW!
We're all just carbon, water, starlight, oxygen and dreams
"Merika! Folks sue for silliness and then complain because we have so many regulations. "Caution: Coffee is Hot" It's exhausting really