Cook County, Illinois, giving away Six Flags Great America tickets for vaccination

Now Six Flags really is giving away the gate!

Wow. The million dollars was nice but this is spectacular!

From a Six Flags standpoint, that's 15,000 tickets sold in a single transaction, so wow that's good for them. That being said, Ohio's lottery for vaxxers has greatly improved their vax numbers. I think I read something like a 30% increase in vaccinations after the announcement. This might have a smaller but still solid impact.

(That being said, my opinion is that all of this is stupid. We all have access now and I'm fully vaccinated. We shouldn't be bribing people. Now that everyone has access to vaccines, we should open back up fully and the onus falls on the unvaccinated to either get the shot or get the virus.)

As mentioned 40 million times already a) not everyone has access to vaccines (kids, for instance) b) other people getting the vaccine is in the best interest of community health - vaccine breakthrough and variants are both real concerns of varying levels.

When we visited Six Flags America in early April they were doing the same thing. It was packed. We were lucky to get in and ride before it got too crowded.

The first millionaire was drawn yesterday. What set me back a minute was that her name was blasted all over every news outlet. The young man that won the scholarship was on the news himself.
It’s not like the lottery where you win anonymously and you have to step forward. Instead they draw the name and announce it.
Now, this may all be spelled out in the terms, and as much as I’d like a million bucks, I’m not sure I want it this way.
And btw, lawsuits are being filed left and right trying to call this sweepstakes unfair and unlawful. Stay tuned.

I was wondering about that. Normally sweepstakes have a “no purchase necessary” option which would defeat the purpose of one.

From what I understand, you are agreeing by signing up for the lottery to public disclosure. I wondered how it would work when it was first announced. They said they would pull from voter registration records. But that had a lot of issues in terms of privacy. Thought maybe they would just say someone from Canton or Lima won. But big purpose of the lottery is the publicity. Will be interesting to see if seeing actual person win both lotteries will make it real for more people and thus more people will sign up. We shall see.

Heck, even Cedar Point lists “Mac M.” as the winner of Ticket of a Lifetime.
And to be clear, that’s a name they haven’t had to use yet...

One of the big controversies was that the rules included this bit:

"Acceptance of the prize constitutes express permission for the State of Ohio and its agencies as set forth in the Release and Verification to use the prize winner's name and/or likeness worldwide, in perpetuity, for purposes of advertising and trade without further compensation, notification or permission unless prohibited by law, in any and all media now known or hereafter devised."

But that doesn't really account for the name being announced on television as a winner before you accept the prize. But I also noticed this part:

"All winner information and eligibility will be reviewed prior to the declaration of an Official Winner. Potential winners’ information will be validated by State of Ohio officials.

In the event that an entry is deemed invalid, a discrepancy is found, or the winner cannot be located based upon the contact information submitted, an alternate shall be used in place of the ineligible or un-locatable winner.

In the event that the winner does not wish to receive a prize, refuses or fails to provide verification information, or does not promptly respond to the initial contact by State of Ohio officials, that winner may be deemed ineligible and an alternate may be used. If it is determined that an alternate will be used, the winner that was deemed invalid will forfeit any prizes associated with the Promotion."

So does that mean the winner knows they've won and has accepted the prize before their name is announced on live television? If so, that would cover all the issues with the public announcement.

Meanwhile here in Ireland we're working on vaccinating those over the age of 45 – younger people need not apply for the moment :/

Meanwhile here in the US we have to bribe people with free stuff to convince them to save theirs and others lives.

Lord Gonchar said:

So does that mean the winner knows they've won and has accepted the prize before their name is announced on live television? If so, that would cover all the issues with the public announcement.

In short, yes. She got a phone call from the governor before the actual announcement. At that point she could choose to accept or decline. Or block the number as spam.