Tennessee Sweepstakes Laws: Rules & Requirements

Tennessee prize offers: identify the business, state a verifiable prize value and explain costs or restrictions before people accept the offer.

Planning a free giveaway or photo/video competition open to Tennessee 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.

Free gifts and travel prizes need clear terms

Tennessee’s Attorney General explains that covered free or discounted gift offers must clearly identify the business and street address, give an approximate verifiable retail price and disclose the approximate total of costs or other monetary obligations associated with accepting the offer.

This is especially useful for travel or experience prizes. Explain what the award includes, reservation restrictions and any expenses the recipient would bear. Do not advertise an unconditional free trip when the actual offer is materially different.

Sources: Tennessee AG guidance on gifts and vacation offers.

Match the selection process to the offer

For the free submission format covered here, explain whether judges or public votes determine the winner. Publish dates, eligibility and tie handling, and plan how the promised prize will be delivered.

Those are practical administration recommendations. They do not establish that a paid contest, paid vote or casino-style sweepstakes is lawful; those formats need separate analysis before reusing an ordinary free-promotion description.

Sources: Tennessee AG guidance on accurate prize terms.

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 Tennessee'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.