Legal Definitions - bank night

Bank night is a form of lottery where a prize is awarded to an individual whose name is randomly drawn. This practice commonly involved venues, such as theaters, awarding prizes to their patrons.

Bank Night

A "bank night" refers to a promotional event, often used by businesses, where a prize is awarded to an individual whose name or entry is selected purely by chance from a group of participants. This selection process is typically random and public, such as drawing a name from a container like a box or hopper. The primary goal is usually to attract customers, increase attendance, or generate interest in a product or service.

Examples:

• Imagine a local grocery store running a weekly promotion. For every $50 a customer spends, they receive an entry slip to write their name on and drop into a large clear box near the checkout. At the end of the week, the store manager publicly draws one name from the box, and the winner receives a $100 store gift card.

  This scenario illustrates a bank night because a prize (the gift card) is awarded to a person (the customer) whose name is chosen randomly from a collection of entries (the slips in the box), with the aim of encouraging more shopping.

• Consider a new restaurant that wants to build its customer base. They encourage diners to drop their business cards into a fishbowl at the host stand. Once a month, the restaurant holds a drawing, pulling one business card from the bowl, and the lucky individual wins a complimentary dinner for two.

  This is an example of a bank night because a prize (the free dinner) is given to a person (the diner) whose entry (business card) is randomly selected from a container (the fishbowl), serving as a promotional tool for the restaurant.