North Dakota Sweepstakes Laws: Rules & Requirements

North Dakota contest-prize notices have a payment-related scope. Keep free-entry claims, prize conditions and judging or voting terms accurate.

Planning a free giveaway or photo/video competition open to North Dakota residents? This guide focuses on ordinary commercial promotions with free entry, including random drawings and submission contests using judges or public voting. Paid entries or votes, purchase-linked promotions, charitable raffles and regulated prizes need separate analysis.

Editorial review: September 11, 2026. Sources are linked beside the guidance they support. This is an informational overview, not legal advice for a particular campaign.

When chapter 53-11 applies

North Dakota’s Contest Prize Notices chapter defines its covered sponsor through payment, or the impression that payment is required, to obtain a prize-related benefit. It sets disclosure requirements and includes exemptions.

Check those definitions before applying its detailed rules to a wholly free entry page. A campaign that makes people believe they must pay to receive or learn about a prize should not be described as free merely because the initial form costs nothing.

Sources: North Dakota chapter 53-11.

Give entrants an accurate description of the award

For a free drawing, describe the prize and entry procedure without suggesting that all recipients have already won. If a covered prize notice is used, apply its required value, odds and condition disclosures to that notice.

For free photo/video submissions, publish whether judges or votes decide the result, the relevant dates and tie rules. Keep any later purchase or paid-voting offer outside the stated free format until it has been reviewed separately.

Sources: North Dakota prize-notice requirements and scope.

Registration and campaigns open to other states

For ordinary free commercial sweepstakes, the familiar prize-value filing regimes are in New York, Florida and Rhode Island. That does not remove North Dakota's disclosure and conduct rules described above, or special rules for a different industry or format. See the registration guide and its sources for that distinction.

The state-law directory links to all 50 states and DC. A “void where prohibited” line does not itself define your eligible audience or complete a required filing.

Before opening entries

Use these practical drafting and administration steps alongside the applicable state rules:

• Identify the sponsor, eligible entrants, entry period and advertised prize.
• Explain the free entry method and how winners are selected. For submissions, describe judging criteria or voting stages and tie handling.
• Make advertisements, the form and full rules agree; do not imply an entrant has already won.
• Plan verification, notification and fulfillment, and retain the rules and selection records.

Federal advertising standards also apply. The FTC warns against misleading purchase prompts and prize claims; see its advertising guidance. Tax reporting and channel-specific rules are covered in the national sweepstakes guide.