Sweepstakes Games are a type of game where a prize or prizes may be awarded to a winner or winners. Sweepstakes began as a form of lottery game that was tied to products sold. In response, the FCC and FTC refined U.S. broadcasting laws creating the anti-lottery laws . A sweepstake is a giveaway where the winner is drawn at random. Every entry has an equal chance of being drawn as the winner. For sweepstakes to enter see the BIG Daily Sweepstakes List. Sweepstakes are great marketing promotions that provide entrants into a game of chance. The winning entrant receives a prize that is typically predetermined by the sponsor. Sweepstakes are governed by different laws and regulations within the United States. A sweepstakes can refer to a lottery or to a race or contest in which the entire prize is awarded to one winner. Sweepstakes may or may not involve gambling, as the winnings can be chosen by random drawing without cost to the winner. Generally a sweepstakes is a lure designed to attract people willing to accept some form of advertisement and usually an opportunity for purchase in exchange for a chance at some grand prize. This agreement to accept advertising is worth a bit of money – that s what TV commercials are there for after all! A few years ago, Harry McMahan drew attention to the kind of commercials which were winning the famous Clio awards for creativity Their posts aren t complicated, and they only put out two kinds photographs of their food, and text posts announcing specials and new menu items, or that use local events including people s birthdays , the weather, and holidays to provide context for their business. Hard-core analytical types might not trust Cone Palace s sometimes anecdotal, unscientific methods for measuring ROI, but when they post a picture of a hamburger and fries, and fans post comments that they re drooling and coming in for lunch, it seems safe to say that the content effectively increases sales. A brand is either the host or a guest of those communities. Usually it s the latter. Communities hosted by brands are considered more of a marketing ploy than an authentic place for transparent conversations but there are exceptions to the rules. Vernor Vinge was the first person to formally use the word singularity when describing the technological future he did it in a 1993 address to NASA, entitled The Coming Technological Singularity. Mathematician Stanislaw Ulam reported that he and polymath John von Neumann had used singularity in a conversation about technological change thirty-five years earlier, in 1958. But Vinge s coinage was public, deliberate, and set the singularity ball rolling into the hands of Ray Kurzweil and what is today a Singularity movement. You can gauge interest by using Meetup to estimate the number of members in similar groups in your location s .