Why are there location eligibility in contests?

Eligibility (location): Entries will be accepted from legal residents of the United States (excluding the State of Rhode Island, Guam, Puerto Rico, U.S. territories, military installations and commonwealths), Canada (excluding Quebec) and Europe. (Canadian residents will be required to answer an additional mathematical question in order to claim their prize.)

Yet again another superb awesome contest I can't participate to because I live in Quebec.

Seriously, what the hell is up to put a location eligibility on a contest for in-game rewards!?

These things are almost always due to the laws of that area.

Don't blame Anet, blame Quebec.

lol btw sorry for asking but why do canadians have to answer a mathematical question?

EDIT: ah k thx for the quick reply anon and thats a wierd requirement i think? lol

That's another Canadian thing, apparently contests there have to have a skill element to them to be legally valid.. Lotteries, raffles, sweepstakes all have to have a skill element, hence why you have to answer a question.

http://guildwarsguru.com/forum/showt...php?t=10398145

It's not Anet's fault. The country/state has rules that prohibit that, so by law, Anet can't include them.

http://guildwarsguru.com/forum/showp...6&postcount=41

If I'm not mistaken, we Canadians don't get taxed on money prizes. In order for it to be a winning and not Anet just giving us something, we have to answer a skill testing question (which is usually mathamatical).

What about all the people who dont live in Europe/USA/Canada? Im sure the other how many hundred countires in the world dont have laws preventing it. Even if they did charge for shipping, $10 is fine if im getting a free $80 mouse.

You would need to take that up with Anet themselves, we can't answer this question. As it stands, they are only accepting entries from the stated countries - if you disagree, you'll need to ask ANet for further explanation/clarification.

Yes, Rhode Island is excluded due to a law that requires a company to file forms and pay a $150 fee and then file follow-up forms after the contest or face criminal charges. While the requirements are only for prizes of $500 and up value, ArenaNet would have to jump through legal hoops to prove the prize had no monetary value. Therefore, I don't get to enter the contests.