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CT Lottery to Offer PC Game
nstrom writes "The Connecticut State Lottery is giving out a PC game (for Windows, presumably) with their new scratch-off lottery tickets which offer a chance of winning $25,000 by playing. This news article from the Hartford Courant mentions that the game might be targeted at children, but there's no mention of any problems involving software cracking, which is what I immediately thought of. I'm sure there are some bored crackers out there who'd tackle this for a chance at some cash. What do you think?"
...than hardware manufacturers.
I bet if there was a game like Diablo 2 where some sort of cash reward was involved, but it was a pay to play service like EQ, many many people would get very hooked on it. HEY DON'T STEAL MY IDEA ****patent pending****
I seriously doubt that every cd will be "winable", more likely, they have a limited run of "winable" cd's, followed by a larger run of cd's with limited winnings (like five or ten dollars), which the majority of scratch-off "winnings" are.
They'll probably have one cd that can win the "grand prize", and that one is probably at the bottom of the St. Charles River in Quebec.
Black and grey are both shades of white.
I think my odds of cracking the software are better than winning the lottery!
Yo Grark
Canadian Bred with American Buttering
Canadian Bred with American Buttering
If there's $25k involved, I'm sure even a cracker who wasn't bored would give it a shot.
That sounds rather ridiculous. There have been many Simpson's episodes in which Homer, Marge, and even Bart have gambled. Not that that makes it right, but there is quite a precedent with cartoons gambling. There are much bigger things to worry about.
Very popular slashdot journal for adul
You'll notice that gambling initiatives never are proposed to fund highway development or the general fund. They're always "earmarked" (a bogus term that any accountant can get around) for education, welfare, etc.
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
Lottery...def 1. A tax on people who suck at math.
I hope, for consistency's sake, you don't have any insurance policies.
I work for a company that produces scratch and win lottery tickets, this is actually old news. Many countries/companies have produced such a game
The game (of which I haven't played) has nothing to do with skill, it only depends upon the numbers that are under the scratch off material on the physical ticket. so even if you could "crack" the game it wouldn't do anything for you because to clain the prize you need the physical ticket.
The game is nothing but a formality if you didn't have a PC you could just simply turn the ticket in and the retailer would tell you if you've won/loose and for how much.
No.. a person with a lottery ticket has *one* more chance of winning than a person that has one.
Q.E.D.
If you actually want to win $25k, you're better off going to Vegas, putting $25 down on black, then hoping black comes up ten times in a row. The odds of that working are only about one in 1200 or so, depending if you're playing on a single zero or double zero wheel.
Sure you can't do it as often, but that's for the best anyway, isn't it?
He sighed and told me that for 1 dollar a week he could day dream about winning the millions, retiring before he was 40 and doing everything he ever wanted to do in his life but couldn't because he had been kicked out of the house at 15 and had to get a real job instead of going to school and learning statistics. It was a pretty cheap day dream.
I still occassionally buy lottery tickets to this day :-)
...wanna look at a statistical distribution of who plays the lottery? Wanna look at what types of TV shows they advertise during, and when they air? Your average lottery player is generally not all that bright, usually quite poor, and frequently un/under-employed. Particularly those people who play it with any regularity (ie, not for the occasional novelty). There's a reason they advertise during those inane judge shows that air during working hours.
-Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat
It's not just the level of skill involved. Let's have a look.
What exactly is the difference? As was mentioned elsewhere, Reverend Lovejoy said it best:
Once something has been approved by the Government, it's no longer immoral.
yo.
The store I work at got in one of the demos for this game, and since I'm the "resident computer geek", they had me test it out. The CD part of the game is just a complete gimmick. You buy a ticket, which has some long number you type into the program. You watch it go through some corny animation sequences, where you click on every damn thing on the screen, then afterwards, it shows if you won anything. The CD itself doesn't do anything, you need the $4 ticket to claim the prize.
Personally, I think it's going to flop. A lot of the people that I see who buy lotto tickets either go immediately scratch them, then return five minutes later to cash them and buy more, or they just purchase occasionally. This won't appeal to either group; the occasional buyer won't want to drop $25 for the "starter kit" with CD, and the addicts want their money right away, and won't buy it.
parental keys only work after it's installed. I just don't like the idea of kids randomly getting ahold of this.
My wife is horrible about gambling! I have a stuffed dog from the fair that cost $50! We just kept on playin' until she won something and in the end we ended up owing the guy like $30 cause we weren't payin' before each shot. Since then, I don't let her out of my sight at the fair, or at least hand her a budget and cut her off! the dog serves as a visual reminder! If she ever walked in a casino, I'd be bankrupt!
They say people should stop themselves, but I'll tell you that certian personalities just can't stop hoping for the big score! Putting this in any form where kids can get it unattended is just wrong and should be stopped! The people planning this should be booted from office or fired, whichever applies! If your Legislative critters get ideas like this--boot 'um!