Hawai'i residents will never win the California Travel & Tourism Commission's vacation sweepstakes.

Nor do they stand a chance of getting one of 24 plasma-screen televisions that electronics retailer Circuit City is giving away. Ditto for a Las Vegas trip and round of golf with sports writer Rick Reilly in a contest sponsored by Jack Daniels, maker of the famed Tennessee whiskey.

Hawai'i residents are out of luck when it comes to many sweepstakes.

Honolulu resident Andrew Choy, 25, a graduate student, discovered this peculiarity a few months ago as he leafed through a popular magazine, stopping to consider entering a sweepstakes featuring a trip to Southern California and Disneyland. The ad's fine print said people from Hawai'i couldn't enter.

"It was, like, why?" said Choy, talking about his reaction. "It doesn't make much sense because we are part of the country, too."

While the majority of national sweepstakes are open to people from Hawai'i, a stupefying number of companies and organizations trying to woo local residents as customers shut them out when it comes to their sweepstakes. At least a couple dozen national sweepstakes sponsors have denied residents in current and recent contests, typically including the line "open to residents of the United States, excluding Hawai'i and Alaska."

In at least one case, residents of other countries are eligible for the contests, while those from Hawai'i aren't. Six Flags Inc., the second-largest U.S. theme park operator, allows residents of Mexico and Canada to enter its current "Dream Nite" sweepstakes that has a prize allowing the winner and 100 other people to have an exclusive evening at one of their parks. Several calls to Six Flags inquiring about the exclusion weren't returned.

The New York-based corporation wasn't alone, though. Publisher HarperCollins didn't bother to respond to a query why a contest for teachers and librarians excluded those from the 49th and 50th states. The company earlier this year ran a sweepstakes at its HarperTeen Web site for a shopping spree in Las Vegas. Teens in Hawai'i could forget about submitting an entry.

Hawai'i doesn't have any laws that would prevent companies from offering sweepstakes to local residents, according to state Consumer Protector Steve Levins. New York and Florida, two states that require registration, most often are included in the sweepstakes offerings. Levins reported he knew of no local consumer complaints filed over sweepstakes exclusion.

The Aloha State's exemption doesn't make much sense when viewed from a marketing perspective. Hawai'i ranks highly when it comes to disposable income. Market researcher Claritas Inc. lists Hawai'i households as having a median effective buying income, or income after taxes, of $40,337. That's the 17th highest in the nation.

"We don't make a point of excluding Hawai'i unless a client tells us," said Bruce Hollander, executive vice president of Don Jagoda Associates, a Melville, N.Y. firm that's one of the oldest and largest sweepstakes companies. He said companies that don't sell products or have a presence here may elect to leave the state off of the list.

Yet there's another stat that may contribute to marketers ignoring the Aloha state. The combined population of Hawai'i and Alaska is roughly 2 million, or less than 1 percent of the United States. Even if the two states are excluded, the sweepstakes organizers still include 99 percent of the population of the rest of the country.

NEIGHBORHOOD SLIGHTS

Other companies that ignore Hawai'i in current sweepstakes include Coastal Living Magazine, a publication that sometimes includes the state in its articles. Its contest for a vacation stay at the Marquis Los Cabos resort is limited to residents of the continental United States.

That's also the case for Romano's Macaroni Grill, which opened a restaurant here last year. You can apply for a chance to win its 100 Millionth Glass of Wine contest featuring a grand prize trip to Italy if you live in the lower 48 states or Washington, D.C.

Even California, a frequent destination for Hawai'i residents traveling to the Mainland, is in on the act. The California Travel & Tourism Commission's Find Yourself Here sweepstakes ignores Hawai'i and Alaska residents. When contacted, the commission said the states were cut out because Southwest Airlines provided a travel voucher that doesn't include travel from those locales.

That same reasoning applies to other sweepstakes with travel as a prize. "It's a huge expense to fly to either Alaska or Hawai'i," said Alesya Opelt, director of marketing for ePrize LLC, a Detroit firm that's a leading online promotion company.

She said usually promoters get travel vouchers that limit travel to the continental United States. Also, some companies might exclude Hawai'i and Alaska when it comes to prizes such as large televisions because they are costlier and more difficult to ship, she said.

Still, there are sweepstakes offering travel as a prize that let Hawai'i entrants in the door. And there are companies with small prizes such as a computer that shun entries from the state. Footwear maker Adidas did as much in its current sweepstakes in which winners get the T-Mac 6 shoe.

Theories abound as to why some sweepstakes turn up their nose at Hawai'i, including that operators who try to run contests on the cheap copy contest rules that have the exclusions in them. Then there is the odd occurrence when a local company may limit Hawai'i's participation.

DEALING WITH COSTS

The Outdoor Channel, which is available on cable television systems here, allows entries from 49 states for its "Gear Up Your Garage for Hunting Season." The odd state out? Hawai'i. A spokesman from K2 Marketing Group of Pasadena, Calif., said the local cable provider elected not to participate in the program and thus Hawai'i was left out.

It's not only Mainland companies that exclude some states from sweepstakes entries. Hilo Hattie, the maker of Hawaiian apparel, has a sweepstakes for a trip for two to Hawai'i. People from all states are free to enter, but there's a catch if you live in Alaska. The contest rules say the flights are only good from the continental United States.

Some savvy sweepstakes promoters are trying to get around the cost issues involved with trips by saying the travel is only good from an airport in the 48 contiguous states. Citysearch, the operator of Web sites providing local information for metropolitan areas, had a sweepstake that offered a New Year's Eve trip to the Wynn Las Vegas resort. The contest that ended last month was open to residents of all states, with the hitch for Hawai'i and Alaska residents being airline tickets that only were good from an airport in the continental United States.

Decisions such as those may just boil down to a quick decision by the contest sponsor.

"It really does depend on the client and what they decide to do," ePrize's Opelt said.

Then there is the theory that this just may all be revenge.

One local government official jokingly suggested the restrictions may be considered by some Mainland residents as fair play given their exclusion from kama'aina rates, those discounts that are available to Hawai'i residents only.

Reach Greg Wiles at gwiles@honoluluadvertiser.com.