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[IRONFIST Studios]

Hi guys,
 
We are thinking about promoting a competition to help launch our mobile game.
The prize-pool will be ~$10,000 USD and it will be free to enter.
It will be available worldwide and the winner will be paid through PayPal.
 
The winners will be decided based on skill - how well they score in our game.
We will verify results through Apple's Game Center.
 
 
My question is:
Is this legal and are there any fees/forms/certificates I need to attain to promote this competition?
 
Thanks!

[rj]

ten thousand

i'm sure that there are some places where this is considered gambling, which may be illegal in some areas

[Columbo]

I think you'd be in a legal minefield trying to give out cash prizes worldwide.

I also wouldn't trust Gamecenter leaderboards, AFAIK, they're pretty easy to hack. (e.g. http://toucharcade.com/2013/10/28/apple-finally-gives-developers-the-ability-to-manage-game-center-leaderboards/).

[BishopGames]

I agree with the 2 previous posters...

While this may seem like a wonderful idea on paper to market your game, with the different laws of every country, making this competition worldwide screams problems to me.
Either scale down the competition or have a lawyer look into it beforehand.