In the last 15 years, George Suppes of Palos Hills has won a Tunturi exercise bike, a microwave oven, a breadmaking machine, a dirt bike, luggage, a $100 gift certificate at Omni stores and a lingerie wardrobe for his wife, Helen, as well as an assortment of other items.
His booty doesn’t come from TV game shows, though. A dedicated sweepstakes hobbyist, Suppes, 66, takes a low profile as he looks for his luck.
Trying to make an easy buck isn’t anything new. The thrill of the win, coupled with the prospect of quickly parlaying a pittance into a fortune, has motivated people for thousands of years. But playing the slot machines, or betting on the horses, is not for everyone. The amount that even avid sweepstakes players spend pursuing prizes wouldn’t last 10 minutes at the blackjack table on most nights.
Some people recognize that the odds in traditional gambling are stacked against them. But the odds in sweepstakes contests depend on the number of participants. As Jeffrey Peterson, president of Fulfillment Network Inc., a sweepstakes-judging agency in Elgin, explains, “There have been times we had trouble awarding all the prizes.”
That’s why, in the evening, when he feels like it, Suppes writes his name and address on index cards or postcards as he watches TV. Sometimes he adds his phone number, age or a “qualifier,” a phrase such as “The Alonzo Spellman Shopping Blitz Sweepstakes.” He doesn’t do too much work, sending out about 10 to 15 entries each week. And he sits back and waits for his prizes.
They arrive about once a month. Usually they are small, according to Suppes, things like T-shirts, baseball caps and posters. But Suppes considers the hobby more than just an investment in the potential prize. “It’s a form of relaxation,” he says. “I go through the newsletter, pick the sweepstakes I might want and enter. I’m more picky about the ones I enter than I used to be.”
The newsletter Suppes refers to is Contest Newsletter, a monthly publication that lists the current sweepstakes promotions and the requirements for entering. It is one of the most well-known of the 25 or so sweepstakes newsletters being published nationwide.
Popularity isn’t necessarily an attribute a sweepstakes newsletter wants, says Anita Hodgkins, editor of the New Hampshire-based Rags to Riches, a newsletter for serious sweepstakes hobbyists. Circulation, she says, is a trade secret.
“If you say it’s too high, people think there’s too much competition, and if you say it’s too low, people think there’s something wrong with you.”
Peterson of Fulfillment Network confirms Hodgkins’ fears: “The worst sweepstakes to enter are the ones that are published in the contest newsletters, because there’s too much competition,” he says.
Retailers use sweepstakes to get exposure for their product, says Peterson. Sweepstakes promotions are very strictly regulated, so sponsors often hire judging agencies to post the rules, comply with state laws regarding games of chance, receive the entries, determine and notify the winners and award the prizes.
Although some sweepstakes hobbyists think they gain an advantage by decorating their entry envelopes with stickers, colors or designs, Peterson says his agency’s judging is truly random.
Entries are placed in mail trays that hold from 900 to 1,100 pieces of mail each. The trays hold envelopes of the same size, which prevents an oversized envelope from having an advantage over smaller envelopes in the tray. The trays are numbered consecutively (for example, from 1 to 80 if there are 80 trays full of mail), Peterson explains.
“When all the entries are in, we go to a drum holding numbered Ping-Pong balls,” he says. “An employee closes his or her eyes and picks out a Ping-Pong ball. If the ball is number 5, for example, we then go to tray number 5, close our eyes and pick out a winning envelope.”
Peterson says the best sweepstakes to enter are the local promotions. “They usually offer decent prizes and have limited exposure (reducing the number of entries competing for the prizes),” says Peterson. He added that sweepstakes requiring”on-pack” forms–entry forms on the product–and tear-pad forms–without the alternative of index card entries–usually are less competitive as well.
Although Suppes wins fairly often with a moderate number of entries, for many the avocation borders on an obsession, and they reap the rewards commensurate with their efforts. For Pat Bogseth of Lisle, entering sweepstakes has been a very lucrative hobby.
“Every year since I started sweepstaking 10 years ago I have planned our family vacations around trips I’ve won,” says Bogseth.
Bogseth does not work outside the home. She spends her spare time painting envelopes to gain more attention for them, listening to US-99 (the station that airs her favorite radio contests) and scanning one of the five sweepstakes publications to which she subscribes. She sends in about 100 entries each week. She says annual costs for the publications are about $235. Additional costs include postage, envelopes, index cards, postcards and miscellaneous items. Bogseth claims the return on her investment, which she declined to estimate, is substantial and can’t be measured in dollars alone.
“My daughter Stephanie and son Kurt got to be a bat girl and bat boy for the Cubs. My other son Steven was in the NHL 75th Anniversary Celebration at the Chicago Stadium. Stephanie and I rode on the Brach’s float in the Christmas parade three years ago,” says Bogseth. “You can’t buy that experience.”
Her biggest win was a 12-day Mediterranean cruise sponsored by Maybelline in 1994. The prize value was $9,500.
“I entered (the Maybelline competition) 95 times, more than I’ve ever entered one contest before,” says Bogseth. “But I have a friend in California who entered 800 times and didn’t win, and there were people on the cruise who entered twice, so you never know.”
In August 1994, Bogseth, together with Joe Olsen of Bartlett, editor of Windy City Sweeps, a sweepstakes newsletter, and three or four other sweepstakes hobbyist established a club for sweepstakers called Illini Dream Team. The club meets the second Saturday of each month, and members share tips and information about current sweepstakes. At each meeting members who have won prizes valued at $500 or more are announced.
“We have at least one each month, and in January 1994 our members won 24 prizes valued at over $500,” Bogseth says of the roughly 40 members who attend each month.
Many sweepstakers protectively view their pastime as more serious than a mere hobby. In fact, several refused to be interviewed for this story, citing concerns ranging from being blacklisted by judging agencies (which Hodgkins says is “crazy”) to being afraid of attracting too much competition.
There also is sufficient anxiety among hobbyists that they may have won a prize no one told them about to prompt a new publication dedicated to informing winners of their good fortunes. “Guess Who’s Winning Now?” publishes the names of people who have won major prizes in sweepstakes.
So far, all the concern and competition among sweepstakes hobbyists hasn’t hurt the serious entrants. Hodgkins sends 50 entries in daily, at a weekly postage cost of more than $100, not to mention the cost of supplies and money paid to her sister to fill out the 3-by-5 cards for her. (“I don’t have time to do it myself,” explains Hodgkins.) But that kind of diligence is rewarded. “So far,” says Hodgkins, “I have won four cars.”
SWEEPSTAKES SAGES SHARE HOW NOT TO GET TAKEN
Not every sweepstakes is worth entering, and some can be downright costly. Sweepstakes experts offer the following advice to those who want to get on the gravy train:
– Never pay for a prize. “If you win a prize in a legitimate sweepstakes, you don’t pay one penny, not even shipping and handling,” says Pat Bogseth of Lisle. Letters that claim you have won something but require you to call a 900 number to collect, or an 800 number that announces that you’ll be charged for the call, are marketing campaigns, not sweepstakes.
– If you haven’t entered the contest, you haven’t won the prize. “No one is going to pick your name out of a phone book and say, `I think I’ll make him lucky today,”‘ says sweepstakes newsletter editor Anita Hodgkins.
– Throw away claims that arrive by bulk-rate mail asserting that you’ve won a prize. Smaller prizes may be sent out without a prior notification, but says Bogseth, “All affidavits (letters indicating you’ve won a prize) are sent certified mail, first class mail or Federal Express.”
– Avoid sweepstakes and contests that require you to sit through a sales presentation. “You do get a prize,” explains newsletter editor Joe Olsen, “but you are on their mailing list forever.” You also have to spend several hours traveling to, and sitting through, a sales presentation for real estate, time shares or other product in which you may not want to invest.
– Read the rules. A middle-aged man is wasting his time and money if he enters a contest open only to girls ages 10 to 17.
IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU
I was skeptical that the typical person could win a big prize without dedicating his or her life to entering sweepstakes. But when I got a “hot tip” from some serious sweepstaking hobbyists while reporting this story, I paid attention. The very short period in which entries would be received (about three weeks) limited the competition for 300 trips to Disney World being given by Target stores. I copied down the information and during the next few weeks sent in five entries.
I had forgotten about my little experiment in sweepstaking until Jan. 22, when I received a certified letter from the judging agency for Target. I had won an all-expense-paid trip to Disney World for my family of four, valued at $4,619.76. I’m hooked.
BINGO REGULARS LOOK FOR LUCK–AND A LITTLE BIT OF MONEY
For those who think sitting at home addressing 3-by-5 cards sounds like slow death, bingo might be the solution. Dispel those images of grandma smoking in the church basement as she scans two bingo cards and hopes to win prizes from the five and dime. While it might still be a charitable cause sponsoring the bingo game, it’s also big business, attracting players of all ages.
Every Friday and Sunday night at Bingo City in Park Forest, between 150 and 300 regular players meet for three hours in the hopes of having the chance to yell “BINGO!” They buy “setups,” a pack of bingo cards for the evening. For their investment of $9 to $24, depending on the number of cards they buy, they hope to collect part of the $2,250 in prize money each evening. On Friday nights, the Order of Alhambra, a national fraternal organization that supports programs for people with mental handicaps, sponsors the event. On Sundays, the sponsor is St. Lawrence O’Toole Catholic Church in Matteson.
Bingo players come to win and to support charitable works. But they meet for other reasons as well.
“I can make it through 10 hours a day with my three grandchildren (ages 7, 10 and 14) knowing that at 7 o’clock I can have three hours of relaxation,” says Lorna Anderson, 64, of Richton Park. “It’s a social thing. I don’t drink or smoke. This is my entertainment. I know 60 percent of the people in this hall, and I’ve met many of them from playing bingo.”
Anderson, a retired school teacher who plays several times a week in a variety of locations, says that although bingo is a great evening for seniors, it is appealing to players of all ages. “At the Dorchester (senior center/bingo hall in Dolton), I’ll see about 25 of my former students every week,” she says.
Anderson credits bingo with everything from tension relief to being a veritable fountain of youth. “My mother is 83,” she says, “and bingo has kept her young. She plays bingo every night and will play days if she can find a game. It keeps her active.”
May McLaurin of Richton Park is about a generation younger than Anderson but loves the game almost as much. McLaurin, who declines to disclose her age, plays two or three nights a week after she leaves her job as an office worker in Chicago. “For $14 I can play all night,” she says, showing the 18 cards she is playing, although she sometimes plays as many as 65 or 70 cards.
McLaurin’s biggest bingo night was six years ago, when she won $800 in one outing, but right now she’s in a bingo slump. She doesn’t really mind. “When you’re hot, you’re hot, and that means when you’re on a roll, you seem to keep winning. But then you have your down periods,” she says.
Money is not the primary objective. “I’m not here just to win money,” she explains. “I enjoy the game. My mother introduced me to it, and now I use bingo as an activity to enjoy with my mother.”
Steve Sovereign, manager of Bingo City, summarizes the appeal: “The beauty of bingo is that it provides three hours of entertainment for about $20, and the players know they are doing a lot of good for a good cause.”
