Fixing The Rhode Island Problem
Every time Tom’s Hardware runs a contest, we can’t include residents outside of the U.S. And even here in the U.S., we have to exclude Rhode Islanders. Every time we run a contest, we say this. But every time readers from outside of the U.S. complain (or worse). There are many reasons for this (our rules, not your complaints), mostly related to how each country regulates who can win prizes and how winnings are subject to tax laws. Treasure troves of money being an obstacle, we’re stuck. While I am sure there are people in the U.S. who hope it stays this way so that the pool of prize applicants remains more limited, it’s my wish that these rules just go away, or that Tom’s Hardware’s parent company hires a handful of tax attorneys to help us manage every legal jurisdiction in the world. And for goodness sake, even though Rhode Island is our country’s smallest state it feels heartless to exclude them. – by Fritz Nelson
