Audio clip
Chad Spencer
PDF: Attorney General Opinion on Vols promo
The owner of Chattanooga’s Ashley Furniture HomeStore will continue a free furniture promotion hinging on the University of Tennessee basketball teams’ bid for the NCAA tournament championship even though the state attorney general has said it is illegal.
Chad Spencer, the store’s owner, said he has permission from UT and the Tennessee Secretary of State’s Office to conduct the promotion, and he plans for it to continue.
“I have already paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in insurance premiums to make sure I’m covered, so go Vols, go,” Mr. Spencer said. “The Secretary of State’s department (said) that this was in fact a legal promotion and was not a gambling and/or a lottery, so the promotion is good; it’s standing; and we’re hoping the Vols win — Lady Vols or men Vols — so that we can give some customers their money back.”
The Chattanooga promotion took place over three days during the weekend of the Southeastern Conference tournament. Money for any furniture that customers bought during the weekend would be refunded — with the exception of sales tax and other nominal fees — if either of the Tennessee Volunteer basketball teams won the NCAA tournament.
The only caveat was that customers had to pick between the men’s and the women’s teams to win. In Chattanooga, Mr. Spencer said, more customers picked the Lady Vols than the men to make it all the way in the tournament.
But Tennessee Attorney General Robert Cooper issued an opinion that such a sales promotion amounts to illegal gambling.
In the opinion, Mr. Cooper wrote that, “It is not legal in Tennessee to conduct a promotion that requires the purchase and/or financing of goods, when that purchase and/or financing is induced by the speculation that one may receive a partial or full rebate contingent upon a particular team winning the NCAA basketball tournament.”
The opinion, requested by state Rep. Brian Kelsey, R-Germantown, is an advisory opinion and does not carry the force of law.
Mr. Kelsey said he often asks the attorney general for his opinion on legal issues.
“It seemed like an interesting legal question, and it has the potential to affect a lot of consumers,” he said.
The promotion, because it is being conducted by a for-profit business, does not fall under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of State’s Office, said Tameka M. Corlew, assistant director of the division of charitable solicitations and gaming in the Tennessee Department of State.
Mr. Spencer also owns part of 12 stores in three states, including outlets in Memphis, where he conducted a similar promotion in December hinging on whether the University of Memphis men’s basketball team wins the NCAA tournament championship.
He called the local promotion a success, and said he initiated it to boost lagging sales. He was inspired by a similar promotion conducted by a Boston furniture store in 2007.
The Tennessee Vols were playing the Louisville Cardinals Thursday night for a spot in the NCAA tournament’s Elite Eight. The Lady Vols play the University of Notre Dame in the Oklahoma Region semifinals Sunday.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
