Deadspin
So here's something funny and obscure that a reader just pointed out to us. This week, Sports Illustrated subscribers — like ourselves — were treated to a special promotion with Callaway Golf. Basically, you send in a contest card, and if you win, you get a X460 Driver and two X Fairway Woods. We don't play golf, so we don't have the foggiest idea what those are.
But that's not the fun part. It's the fine print, with its strange requirements of our neighbors to the north, that gave us pause.
"Any Canadian winner will also be required to correctly answer, unaided, a time-limited mathematical skill-testing question in order to receive a prize.
Uh, what? Wethinks someone in the Time Warner promotions department was a little bored this week. Either that, or Canadian golf fans need to finally get off the Metric system.
(UPDATE: Amazingly, there's a logical answer to this. Canadians are so weird.)
Comments
For some reason, all Canadian contests require the winner to answer a "mathematical skill-testing question." From the same set of laws that don't allow caffeine in Mountain Dew.
I've seen that stipulation before. I think it was when I used to collect hockey cards and they ran contests. But yeah, there is some rule in a lot of contests that states Canadians must also do a math problem in order to get the prize. I guess its a way to make sure they don't get lazy and start relying on contests to provide them with a way to make a living. Or it has something to do with universal healthcare.
Take off, you hosers
Huh, so Dudley Dooright always DOES get his man!
See, the trick is the answers must be non-metric.
This smells of loophole to me.
Any chance we can just make them take Celine Dion as part of the prize package?
in Canada, it's actually an X585.36 driver.
canadians golf?
Boomer: I'll tell you one thing: their beer sucks!
Glad to see the Deadspin staff using personal pictures for the posts.
That wasn't a hole-in-one ay, he was in the crease!
The question: If Pierre has 3 hockey sticks and gives 2 hockey sticks to Michele, how many Molsons will he be able to consume before being eaten by a bear?
We moved here from Canada, and they put me in this class because they think I'm slow, EH
Ya, Houston. We play hockey there, eh?
But yeah, I've seen this elsewhere too. I'll have to investigate this. And by investigate, I mean say "huh." and continue checking the same four websites over and over again.
I fell off the jungle gym and when I woke up I was in here.
Nice Matty.
What, like "What is the airspeed of an unladen swallow?"
get off my nutsac, you homo Mountie. And no, I don't want any damn candy.
/s/ the inflatable doll
The Canadian Government has apologized for Bryan Adams on several occasions.
This is a law in both Canada and Great Britain (and I'm assuming other British territories). They want to prevent gambling and the like, so they require any giveaway to be a contest. If you've ever watched Fifth Gear (A British car tv show), they use the same concept for their weekly car giveaway, where they ask an obvious question that everyone will automatically know.
"Activities relating to contests and games of chance with no appreciable skill component are offences under ss. 206(1) (a), (b), (c) and (d) of the Code. The case law provides little guidance as to what physical or mental feats constitute a viable skill component.[16] For this reason, contest organizers usually require entrants to answer a mathematical skill-testing question before claiming any prizes; this insulates the contest from ss. 206(1)(a), (b), (c) and (d) of the Code by transforming it into a game of mixed skill and chance, as discussed hereinafter. Case law supports the notion that the addition of such a question transforms a game of pure chance into one of "mixed skill and chance."
Evidently, they require the mathematical problem to discern it from gambling or some shit. I really didn't read it too close.
What in God's name is Jaques and Ray Rougeau doing to that poor child?!?!?!
What is the capital of Assyria?
I always thought I'd like to move to Canada. Hockey on TV all the time would be awesome. But being forced to do math for prizes? I'm going to have to think long and hard about this ...
Like the first rounds of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire"!
Is that show still around?
That Mountie looks like he is about the give that doll the Barbabo treatment.
What is your favorite color?
I so should move to canada and become a lawyer.
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 Ã 4) + (10 Ã 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.
Has anyone tried to play craps at the casino in Montreal? Screw doing math problems, it takes skill just to know if you won the roll or not. I broke even after 10 minutes and just ran away.
I think doing math for prizes would be far more awesome than having hockey on TV all the time.
Don't make me steamroll you...Steamroller!
jenp, you already live in utah...what's the difference?
I found this while googling this requirement, 2nd page of results. This same requirement is the 5th rule of the Outback Steakhouse No Rules Sweepstakes. The 6th rule is no inappropriate hugging.
Barbaro, although I think Barbabo has its nuaces. Whatever I am not the one who wants to give the horse a happy ending.
It's also Robocop's Fourth Directive.
Hockey on tv is waaaaay better than Poker. The only tit-fucker references around a poker table are about the players' man boobs.
A bunch of Canadian legal sites just got a record number of hits.
I'm asked an unaided, time-limited mathematical skill-testing question every time I log into my Deadspin account.
True story, Bowdenx3!
How many Canadians does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
They must have a kick-ass Mathlete team up there.
EH!
UM, about 30 degrees Celcius
Do Canadian lawyers still wear powdered wigs?
Someone get Fergie Jenkins on the phone. I need answers.
Have y'all seen that Viking ship show on ESPN2. Those asians have to stop midway thru the obstacle course and do math problems.
An american would sue if they were required to do anything involving a thought process.
43 comments already. NOTE TO WILL: Do more Canada/Hockey posts.
If little Martha was sent to the corner store in MooseJaw to buy 5 6-packs of Molson, and she can only carry 2 6-packs at a time, how many trips must she take?
Denis Lemieux:
I was similarly situated in Montreal at a blackjack table. I always wondered how so many non-english speakers could play BJ without knowing the language...then I played in french and I understood.
Rush, Larry Walker, cheap film-shooting locations and whores-a-plenty during the Detroit Super Bowl. That about covers it.
Not only do Canadian winners have to answer a math question to claim their prize, but they must also beat these guys in 2 out of 3 falls.
http://www.wrestlingworld.it/Historical/Tagteamgallery/que...
Does anybody know what happens if I find a mouse in a bottle?
BigT, did it also freak you out that random frenchmen can bet on your hand at the blackjack tables? They throw money down behind your bet and then stand over your shoulder giving you menacing looks when they want you to hit but instead you stay. That city blows my mind.
Good strip clubs though
cel-ci-us?
Free beer, eh.