Twenty-seven states, including Colorado, have now filed lawsuits against Publishers Clearing House, to halt what those states’ attorney generals call "deceptive advertising." They say the sweepstakes company’s mailings target senior citizens and others who do not understand that no purchase is necessary and that the odds of actually winning are extremely small.

Publishers Clearing House is not the only offender; last year, American Family Enterprises settled a similar lawsuit for $33 million and earlier paid $6.9 million to settle complaints from 40 states. Several other firms also routinely send out mass mailings that lead hundreds of thousands of people to believe, at least for a moment, that they’re finalists for a million-dollar prize. Anyone who doesn’t read the envelope extremely carefully can be fooled into that misconception; only in small print are the odds revealed.

And yet sweepstakes officials protest that they don’t intend to mislead anyone.

"Our mailings are clear, and consumers understand them," said Deborah Holland, a Publishers Clearing House senior vice president, said in a written statement. "In the isolated cases where someone has been confused, we have responded with humane and sympathetic assistance for the individuals and their families."

No, they’re not. If they’re not intentionally misleading (and that’s certainly debatable), they’re at least designed to lead the recipient to the conclusion that they should subscribe to some magazines in order to further their chances of winning a cash prize. "You are a finalist!" they proclaim in huge letters. "You may have won!" We all know people who’ve been gulled into ordering something they didn’t want.

The basis of the lawsuits is the accusation of fraud: misleading citizens into acting in a way they would not have, had they known the truth. The states’ attorneys and the sweepstakes companies’ attorneys will split legal hairs over that issue, probably for years. By then many of the senior citizens who were duped will have died.

While it’s not the role of government to force business to comply with the Golden Rule, it’s a sad comment on American society that a multi-state lawsuit is required. The open market isn’t likely to take care of the problem, because sweepstakes firms play by the numbers. They don’t need goodwill or repeat business, because, as P.T. Barnum said, there’s a sucker born every minute.

These firms aren’t likely to adjust their behavior to fit the bounds of common decency, because there’s profit to be made. Publishers Clearing House didn’t learn its lesson from the American Family Enterprises lawsuit. The benefit is clearly worth the risk of losing a big civil suit. Yes, it’s too bad about those poor little old women who spent their life savings on magazine subscriptions, convinced the next order would result in a big payoff, but as Holland’s statement said, those "isolated" cases earn humane and sympathetic responses.