Sweepstakes, Contests or instant winner games

I’m not sure what you mean by “common sense told me it wouldn’t work”. Many companies, including several of our clients, are offering million dollar and even greater prize structures and they certainly do work. Companies often use prize insurance which allows them to offer a prize greater than their budget would normally allow. The insurance premium is figured on the value of the prize and the chance it might get claimed... allowing the promotion sponsor to offer consumers a more exciting prize structure than their budgets would normally allow. The rules for such promotions must clearly spell out that in the event the Grand Prize is not claimed, it will not be awarded. Often these promotions do include lower value prizes that are given away, sometimes in a second chance sweepstakes. Without seeing the rules to the promotion that you are talking about, I can’t really say for sure if this is the case but I suspect it is, and your promotion’s Grand Prize was never claimed. Perfectly legal if conducted properly. As for not finding the address in the phone book..people move..and some keep unlisted numbers…