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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?"

7 of 301 comments (clear)

  1. Why not? Earn money based on skill by Rooked_One · · Score: 4, Insightful
    It seems that this is the basic theory in this - maybe i'm missunderstanding, but it doesn't really seem like a lottery at all - sort of a quake3 tournament for people that don't have the skill to play quake3, or aren't inherently good at fast reflex requiring games.

    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****

  2. I think it's just an animated "scratch-off" by loucura! · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.
  3. Re:Lottery: def by TopShelf · · Score: 3, Insightful
    You forgot option #3 - whether or not people end up gambling more, the legislator is sure to get a nice, steady stream of campaign contributions for his efforts to "provide funding for such needy causes."

    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
  4. Re:Lottery: def by kafka93 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    No.. a person with a lottery ticket has *one* more chance of winning than a person that has one.

    Q.E.D.

  5. Re:Lottery: def by Titusdot+Groan · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I remember when I learned statistics waAAAaaay back in high school, figured out my Dad's chances of winning the million dollar prize and went home and informed him how "stupid" he was for playing.

    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 :-)

  6. The difference between lottery and gambling by yo303 · · Score: 3, Insightful
    I have never understood the difference between so-called "illegal" gambling and legal gambling such as the lottery and church-run bingo games.

    It's not just the level of skill involved. Let's have a look.

    • One-armed bandits - gambling, no skill required
    • Horse betting - gambling, some skill required
    • Poker - gambling, skill required

    • Government lotteries - not gambling, no skill required
    • Bingo - not gambling, some skill required
    • Playing the stock market - not gambling, skill required

    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.

  7. The CD's a gimmick by krisbrockway · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.