The US Department of Justice, via its Tampa office in Florida, has challenged the legality, and ruled against, the annual IRONMAN Lottery, which has run since 1983. As a result, Florida-based IRONMAN brand owner World Triathlon Corp (WTC) has reportedly agreed to forfeit US$2.76 million – amounting to proceeds from the lottery since October 2012.
Beginning in 2012, athletes had an increased chance of being selected for the Ironman Lottery based on the number of years that they have entered. For each year an athlete has registered since 2001, his or her chances increase accordingly. However, according to the Department of Justice, charging athletes to pay for the chance to compete at Kona, was not compatible with existing lottery and gambling laws.
“Ironman would have been permitted to give away the opportunity to compete in the race but violated the law when it charged athletes money for the chance to win,” said a release from US Attorney Lee Bentley for the Middle District of Florida.
In response IRONMAN issued a statement following the Department of Justice decision:
We are proud of the longstanding tradition of the IRONMAN Kona Lottery. Thanks to the vision of IRONMAN Co-founders, John and Judy Collins, the IRONMAN Lottery has changed lives and provided athletes of all abilities the opportunity to participate in the world’s most challenging and iconic one day endurance event, the IRONMAN World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.
The IRONMAN Kona Lottery has operated in a substantially similar manner since 1983. Several months ago, the Tampa office of the U.S. Department of Justice contacted IRONMAN to claim that the IRONMAN Kona Lottery is not compliant with existing lottery and gambling laws. Since that time we have fully cooperated with the Department of Justice through a series of meetings and correspondences.
As a result of our cooperation, the Department of Justice and IRONMAN have come to an agreement to no longer operate the Kona Lottery in its current form. While we do not agree with U.S. Department of Justice’s interpretation of the relevant statutes or that there has been anything untoward or inappropriate in our operation of the IRONMAN Kona Lottery, IRONMAN chose to settle so that we can focus on our priorities – our athletes and our events.
Our 2015 winners of the IRONMAN Kona Lottery are unaffected by this agreement and their slots will be honored. We continue to believe in the Collins’ vision for making the IRONMAN World Championship accessible to athletes of all abilities and plan to announce new plans later this year.
