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In the terms and conditions of a keysight promotion to win an oscilloscope, I stumbled over the following sentence:

In accordance with local laws, if the selected entrant is a Canadian or South African resident, that entrant will be required to answer a mathematical skill-testing question, without assistance of any kind (whether mechanical or otherwise), within the time frame provided above.

What is/are the law(s) behind this, and what is that law trying to achieve?

Morgoth
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PlasmaHH
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1 Answers1

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From a blog entry by Canadian lawyers familiar with sweepstakes and contest laws:

In Canada, games of pure chance are prohibited as illegal lotteries under our Criminal Code...

For contests of chance, making prize redemption conditional on answering a skill-testing question turns a game of pure chance into a (legal) game of mixed chance and skill. Generally, a time-limited, multi-step and multi-operational mathematical skill testing question, answered without assistance, is sufficient.

That is under §206 of the Criminal Code of Canada - Offences in relation to lotteries and games of chance.

You will probably find similar statutes related to South Africa.

It's not uncommon to see "games of chance" turned into "games of skill" in order to avoid the creation of illegal lotteries.

Zizouz212
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Dave D
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  • Are there examples of such questions anywhere? – Steve Mar 01 '16 at 20:53
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    Given that in other areas (like taxes) often there are often quite some measures in place that prevent easy circumvention of laws by demanding hard proof I wonder if this practice is deliberately tolerated to allow for such promotional contests. – PlasmaHH Mar 01 '16 at 21:27
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    The Wikipedia article on this subject provides an example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skill_testing_question (Their example is (2 x 4) + (10 x 3). The answer is 38.) The article claims that a court decision ruled that a skill testing question had to have at least 3 operations. – Dave D Mar 01 '16 at 21:50
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    Welcome to our illegal casin... errr I mean dice throwing skill improvement center. – get out of jail free card Mar 01 '16 at 21:53
  • @getoutofjailfreecard I saw your username, thought it was a part of your comment, and immediately thought monopoly ._. – Zizouz212 Mar 02 '16 at 00:27
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    Specifically, they're referring to section 206 of the Criminal Code. – Compro01 Mar 02 '16 at 00:50
  • It's rather unfortunate that these laws make such games even more predatory on the poor and uneducated - even after winning there's a chance of having one's prize taken away. – R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE Mar 02 '16 at 05:28
  • @R..: In certain marketing areas they make such games so that you have to answer a question that basically everyone can answer, just so that you have a subconscious feeling of achieving something. Apparently that makes you far more likely to take part in such a game. – PlasmaHH Mar 02 '16 at 09:07
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    Bah, If you make an example of a mathematical three-operator question I say, make it (3 x 4)+(5 x 6) and be cool and froody about it. – Asmyldof Mar 02 '16 at 09:48
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    1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 x 0 + 1 = ? – Sobrique Mar 02 '16 at 09:59
  • @Sobrique: What answer would you give for your proposed skill-testing question? The Windows Calculator says 5 or 1, depending on whether you're using Standard or Scientific View... – DJohnM Mar 04 '16 at 19:16
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    Google operator precedence - there is only one correct answer (5). – Sobrique Mar 04 '16 at 21:52