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Where the recipient has to forward a registration fee or similar charge, these may be considered illegal lotteries by the courts since they have the overall objective of distributing money by "chance".

Our advice to recipients is to tear them up. Alternatively offending material may be passed either to the police for consideration and possible investigation, or to the Advertising Standards Association (ASA). ASA is the independent body responsible for ensuring that the Advertising and Sales Promotion Code of Practice, devised by the Committee of Advertising Practice, works in the public interest. ASA carry out regular compliance checks on advertising and conduct research into specific areas of concern. Contact information for the ASA is available on their website. It is, however, for the police to investigate allegations of fraud or dishonesty.

If you are concerned about unsolicited mail originating from this country, you may consider registering with the Mailing Preference Service, which will ensure that your details are removed from most direct mailing lists.

It is also possible to stop direct marketing via telephone or fax by registering with the Telephone/Fax Preference Service. This will prevent a company including your number in their direct marketing campaign.

Under the Data Protection Act 1998 you also have a right to prevent the processing of any data held about you for the purposes of direct marketing. You can ask the firm or company that controls your data to opt out from having your details used in this way. You will need to write to them about this. Often when you apply for products there will be box on the application form to tick to elect to do this. This may be in the small print on the form.

If the data controller fails to comply with your written notice you can contact the Data Protection Commissioner who will look into your complaint. The address is:

The ASA advise that they are not aware of any British consumers who have succeeded in collecting winnings from these lotteries. They suggest that recipients do not respond to these companies since in their opinion, it is highly unlikely that they will fulfil their claims.

It is unlawful to promote or advertise a foreign lottery in a newspaper here and enforcement lies with the police. Mailshots are, however, a grey area. Whether they constitute advertising/distribution under the Lotteries and Amusements Act 1976 has yet to be tested in the courts.

Offending material advertising a foreign lottery, if sent from an address in this country, may be passed to the police for consideration and possible investigation. If offenders are based overseas they are outside our jurisdiction. However, the ASA has decided that the most appropriate course of action is for them to send the mailings to the relevant enforcement agencies in the countries in which they originate.

The ASA's Research Team has investigated a number of foreign lottery mailings. They have been in contact with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as well as the International Chamber of Commerce to develop guidelines on matters of jurisdiction. In 1999 the ASA developed an arrangement with similar self-regulating bodies in the USA to refer complaints about advertisements emanating from America.

In addition, the ASA is a founder member of the European Advertising Standards Alliance, which comprises 25 countries including all the EU member states. Members agree to respect each others Codes and have developed a cross border complaints procedure.

If you do not wish to receive further mailings from these companies, we suggest you return the mailings to the advertisers address with a note stating that you do not wish to receive any more.

The best example of a free draw is a circular or mailshot offering the chance to win a prize without having to send any money or make a purchase. Although a complex area, the view that has been taken through court rulings is that to qualify as a lawful free draw, a promotion must be totally free and open to any member of the public.

A scheme may constitute a aleatory if the prizes are distributed by chance and persons are induced to make a money payment, or to give some other valuable consideration, in order to obtain a chance of winning a prize. All lotteries are unlawful unless expressly permitted by statute

Free draws do not fall within the ambit of the legislation. There is, therefore, no registration requirement. Any scheme is, however, subject to the laws relating to fraud and dishonesty.

In a free draw, there can be no requirement to make a payment in order to participate in the draw. The use of a premium rate telephone line in such a promotion may be deemed to be a payment for a chance in a draw.

The Independent Committee for the Supervision of Telephone Information Services (ICSTIS) supervises the conduct of premium rate telephone services. ICSTIS has a published Code of Practice governing the conduct of telephone competitions and their legality. More information is available on the ICSTIS website. It does not, however, have any powers of prosecution.

There have been a number of concerns raised about scratchcard lotteries. Many attempt to circumvent the law by claiming that entry is free and that all entries will win a prize. In many cases, however, prizes have to be claimed by telephoning a premium rate telephone line, the cost of which is often in excess of the value of the prize won.

The Gaming Board regards these lotteries as misleading and in some cases unlawful. A recent High Court ruling indicated that the issue of whether a scratchcard is unlawful rests on how the cards are distributed by retailers.

Where the cards are an advertising strategy to entice consumers into buying a product they may be unlawful since they have, therefore, been issued for commercial gain. If, however, the scratchcards are issued with a newspaper or magazine, they may not be construed as being a selling factor but incidental to the purchase.

This continues to be a grey area and only a court can define authoritatively whether a particular lottery is unlawful or not. It is for the police to investigate allegations of fraud or dishonesty.

The Consumer and Competition Policy Directorate in the Department of Trade and Industry have published a fact sheet about cashback schemes, one-day sales and unsolicited goods and services and information on how to deal with them.

The Government set up an independent review of the controls on gambling in Great Britain in 1999 which noted strong concerns about lotteries and "scams" to which people can fall prey, many of which originate from outside Great Britain. When the Government published its response to the Gambling Review Report it announced that it would undertake a separate, detailed review of prize competitions and quasi-gambling products. This process has started and a consultation paper was published on 23 May 2002.

One important objective to this review will be the removal of any potential for operators to circumvent the principle that lotteries should not be run for commercial gain. We hope to reach some conclusions about this over the next few months.