Oh . . . Canada?

So this morning I happened to have found myself reading the fine print on one of our promotional lead slips and noticed something I never read before or at least never really noticed before:

For entrants in Canada: before being declared a winner, the selected entrant must correctly answer a timed mathematical skill testing question, without mechanical or other assistance.

Anyone else find this absolutely hilarious? When I questioned several co-workers about this, everyone was aware of the Canadian law, yet really didn’t think too much of it – “just another crazy legal requirement.” I wasn’t satisfied, as this was probably the funniest thing I have heard in several weeks. So I did what any red-blooded kid does these days – looked it up in wikipedia!

Skill testing questions are a legal requirement attached to many contests in Canada.

The combined effect of Sections 197 to 206 of the Canadian Criminal Code bans for-profit gaming or betting, with exceptions made for provincial lotteries, and licensed casinos and charity events. Many stores, radio stations, and other groups still wish to hold contests to encourage more purchases or increase consumer interest. A classic example of such a contest is Tim Hortons' Roll up the Rim to Win, that gives chance to win prizes with every cup of coffee purchased, with prizes ranging from vehicles to doughnuts. These organizations take advantage of the fact that the law does allow prizes to be given for games of skill, or mixed games of skill and chance. In order to make the chance-based contests legal, such games generally have mathematical skill-testing questions incorporated.

The most common form that these questions take is as an arithmetic exercise. A court decision ruled that these must contain at least three operations to actually be skill testing; for example, a common question might be "(2 × 4) + (10 × 3)" (Answer: 38). Enforcement of these rules is not very stringent, and especially for small prizes, the player may not be required to answer the skill-testing question to claim a prize. Anecdotally, getting the answer wrong is also often not an obstacle to claiming a prize. For contests held in the United States or other countries that are open to Canadians, the questions must also be asked of any Canadian winner.

The same section of law prohibits receiving consideration in exchange for playing the games, resulting in a related peculiarity of Canadian contests: the "free entry alternative", which is usually telegraphed by the fine print "No purchase necessary". Generally this means that it is possible to enter the contest for free by, for example, writing a letter to the entity sponsoring the contest and requesting a game piece or entry form.

I am not aware of what our “timed mathematical skill testing question” is, but I will find out and we can all participate in the fun that Canada provides to its neighbors to the south. On a side note, I was up there 2 weeks ago for work and took a bunch of pictures – stay tuned. I had to use my old-school Minolta film camera and I haven’t taken the rolls to Costco yet.