State ex rel. Glendinning Companies of Connecticut v. Letz

591 S.W.2d 92, 1979 Mo. App. LEXIS 2619
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 29, 1979
DocketNo. KCD 30334
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 591 S.W.2d 92 (State ex rel. Glendinning Companies of Connecticut v. Letz) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. Glendinning Companies of Connecticut v. Letz, 591 S.W.2d 92, 1979 Mo. App. LEXIS 2619 (Mo. Ct. App. 1979).

Opinion

KENNEDY, Judge.

This is an appeal by the defendant Supervisor of Liquor Control from a declaratory judgment of the Circuit Court of Cole County, by which the court declared that certain gambling-type promotional games manufactured and sold by plaintiffs Glen-dinning Companies of Connecticut and Dan-sico Associates, and sponsored by the plaintiffs Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, Fleming Foods Company, Wetterau, Incorporated, and intervenor Gerbes Super Markets in the promotion of their respective grocery businesses, did not violate Regulation 15(k) (11 CSR 70-2.140(12)) promulgated by defendant Supervisor.

Participating in the games were 22 Missouri stores of plaintiff A & P; 46 owned by or affiliated with plaintiff Fleming Foods; 151 owned by or affiliated with plaintiff Wetterau; and 9 owned by inter-venor Gerbes. Most of these stores had licenses to sell liquor or non-intoxicating beer, issued under §§ 311.200 and 312.030, respectively, RSMo 1978.

Defendant Supervisor had threatened to institute proceedings for the revocation or suspension of the retail liquor and non-intoxicating beer licenses of plaintiffs’ and intervenor’s stores if they continued to sponsor the games. The Glendinning Companies, Dansico, A & P, Fleming and Wet-terau filed this declaratory judgment action against the Supervisor, seeking the court’s ruling that the games were not in violation of the Supervisor’s regulation. Gerbes later entered the case as an intervenor. Gerbes’ posture is that of a plaintiff, and will hereinafter be included in the designation “plaintiffs”.

The regulation.

Regulation 15(k) (11 CSR 70-2.140(12)) reads as follows:

“No licensee shall allow upon or about his licensed premises, any gambling of any kind or character whatsoever in which the one who plays stands to win or lose money, trade checks, prizes, merchandise or property or any other consideration whatsoever. No licensee shall have any gambling devices upon his licensed premises whereby money, trade checks, prizes, merchandise or property or any other consideration whatsoever may be won or lost.”

The rule has been in effect since February 18, Í973.

The games.

The games were quite similar to each other, and we need describe only one of them in detail, as representative of all. The independent “United Super” stores, associated with plaintiff wholesaler Fleming Foods, and also the Green Hills stores, owned by Fleming, sponsored a game called “Gamerama”, manufactured by plaintiff Dansico, and which was played as follows:

The player, who is assumed to be the customer, receives, usually at the sponsoring store, a master card which contains six different games. The games are designated “Bingo”, which carries a $5 prize; “Cards”, which carries a $1,000 prize; “Square”, which carries a $100 prize; “Luck”, which carries a $1 prize; “Two Pair”, which carries a $2 prize; and “Fill Your Flush”, which carries a $20 prize.

Each one is actually a bingo-type card, containing a square subdivided into smaller squares. “Bingo”, “Square” and “Luck” each contains numbers on the small squares, along with random squares marked “Free”.

The squares on the “Cards”, “Two Pair” and “Fill Your Flush” contain playing card designations — five spade, queen diamond, and so forth — and also include “Free” squares.

The player receives, by a process hereafter described, Gamerama “markers”. The markers are the same size as the squares and contain numbers or playing card designations. If a player gets a marker corresponding to any of the numbers or playing card symbols on his game card, he inserts that marker in the corresponding square on the game card. When the markers, along [95]*95with the “Free” squares, form a straight row across, down or diagonally on any of the cards, with the exception of “Two Pair” and “Fill Your Flush”, he is the winner of the indicated cash prize. In the case of “Two Pair” and “Fill Your Flush”, the prizewinning combination is to fill a row across, in order to complete the poker hands indicated by the names. For example, one of the winning combinations on the $20 “Fill Your Flush” card in evidence is: King of Hearts, Eight of Hearts, Ace of Hearts, Free, and Two of Hearts, in a horizontal row. The “Free” space is counted in the row, although there is no marker for that space.

Having filled up a row so as to qualify for a prize, the lucky player takes the game card to the sponsoring store and, in the presence of authorized store personnel, he initials the backs of the markers and the completed row. The store gives him his $1, $2 or $5 prize on the spot. If, however, he has won $20, $100 or $1,000, the store will send the initialed markers and the game card, together with a “Prize Submission Agreement” for verification. Upon verification, the winner will be awarded his prize. There is no “Prize Submission Agreement” in evidence and no testimony as to what is involved in “verification”. The instructions say that a Federal Trade Commission rule requires that the names and addresses of winners be posted in all participating stores.

The winning player, instead of taking the game card, markers and signed “Prize Submission Agreement” form to the store, may instead mail it to an address given on the card.

The Gamerama master card can be secured upon request at a sponsoring store at the end of the checkout or at the store office. A player may get one free game ticket — which includes four of the “markers”, used to fill up corresponding squares on the game card — each time he visits a participating store. The game card and newspaper advertising in evidence include “odds charts” which show a player’s chances of winning the various prizes depending upon the number of his “store visits”. The chances of winning a $100 prize during the period June 16-July 15, 1977, for instance, increase from 23,140-to-l for one store visit to 890-to-l for 26 store visits. The odds change and are updated and posted in the stores and in newspaper advertisements each month. A person can request game materials, including master cards and game tickets, by mailing request to Gamerama Mo., P.O. Box 26, Hazelwood, Missouri 23042. Only one request may be included in an envelope. When the game materials are returned to the person requesting them, there is also sent a first-class stamp for reimbursement. Game materials may also be requested by calling a toll-free number, shown on the game card and in the newspaper advertising. Only one telephone or mail request may be made per day for game materials to be mailed to one person or to one address. In response to mail and telephone requests, plaintiffs Wetterau, Fleming and A & P distributed 21,490 “game pieces”, as the game cards and game tickets are called, out of a total distribution of 23,075,000.

Upon the distribution of all game tickets (which, as before noted, contain the markers), the game ends. By some means not disclosed on the game card, an announcement of termination is made. All prizes must be claimed within five days after announcement of termination or they are forfeited. Moreover, whenever the advertised number of prizes have been verified, that game shall “immediately and automatically terminate without notice”, and any unverified claims in process or received after that timé are automatically rejected.

Mootness.

A preliminary matter must first be considered.

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Bluebook (online)
591 S.W.2d 92, 1979 Mo. App. LEXIS 2619, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-glendinning-companies-of-connecticut-v-letz-moctapp-1979.