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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?"
Seems like there would be some legal issues with this as CT has state laws against on-line gambling. Most states do, for that matter.
What do you think?
It sounds dumb, that's what I think. But I wouldn't worry about crackers (people trying to crack the game and win the cash kind of crackers). They state the odds are 1 in 260,000. This is their business and you damn well better believe they won't be paying out more than that.
Even if they are foolish enough to let out a game that can easily be cracked (doubtful, they'll probably just put an encryped code on the winning CDs and check it when you come to redeem), they can refuse the prize at any time. So if too many people come to redeem it, "Sorry, we're paid out. Read the fine print, go home."
"When it rains, it pours." --Morton's Salt
It seems like the best way to do this would be *not* having some random chance of any given game winning, but instead link in a seperate module for 1 in 260000 that has a cash redemption code at the end or some such. In other words, have a 'loser' version, and a 'winner' version, with none of the winner's code in the losing version.
considering it's centered around a cartoon character. Didn't the CT lottery learn anything from Joe Camel - that cartoon characters and vices don't go together?
I've always found it ironic that gambling is so bad that it needs to be illegal in most places, yet it's OK for state governments to run lotteries - which probably offer worse odds than legal games would. Sounds like rent seeking behavior to me.
I have blog like everyone else
By the description of the game it seems pretty much like the one available here in Quebec. Here the two games are a Mah-Jongg type and a mini-putt type of games. The basic point is that they are not casino-type games, so as such would not encourage per-se children to become money-playing addicts.
What is more, the games have parental control protection in case you think playing too much golf is dangerous to your 4-year-old.
I understand that the point is that children are attracted to computer games, put believe me, these are well executed but lame games... And at some point, you have to take responsibility as a parent to control what your child does.
Finally, the games are certainly easily crackable. The catch is that "winning" the game has no value. As the article points out, its the ticket that has the value, protected by a zillion digits control number. So it is on the same level as other scratch-and-win games.
Actually, states would do well to partner with banks to put the lottery in bank ATM machines. When you go to withdraw cash, you have the option to buy so many lottery tickets, using funds from your account. If you lose, too bad. But if you win, instant payout.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
Probably better odds elsewhere. After having actually seen what passes for security in the online gambling industry all you need really is a java decompilor.
Many of the online casino games tell the server whether it won or lost. And on one particularly funny case the game connected right to the SQL server at the casino.
The first place I worked did better with a flash/php combo but theve never bothered to upgrade apache or ssl since I quit.
It's quite sad really I'm supprised these places don't get ripped off more often.
They sent out a DVD-ROM game you could play, which was basically a Macromedia choose-your-own-path game with Quicktime movies. Highest three scores would win an Escalade, powerboat, or motorcycle. They tried to make you play it while you were online, the idea being that only your first reported score mattered. That was easy to circumvent though (thank to plaintext registry keys), so you could play as many times as you wanted to find the optimal solution (skill was not a factor, though finding the highest valid score was a tiny bit tricky). Needless to say, my friend and I both got into the final round (along with 100 or so other fellow cheate...I mean, very lucky players), from which the winner was selected by a lame 50 word essay. We tried to "hack" that too by making a funny video presentation and web site, and including the urls in our essays. But we didn't win...some lame limmerick and word play essays were the winners...bastards! But if the lotto game was anything like that, you can bet their first winner will be mere hours after they release the game. It's probably linked to a ticket number, though, like someone else said. That's the easiest way for them to render hacking attempts useless.
I doubt its possible.
Most likely winning the video game alone does not automatically land 25k. I would assume that if/when you win the video game, it will give you some way to enter into a lottery draw.
Win a chance to win 25k
yay
These have been around for some time. Lotto Quebec has been offering a PC video game lottery for about a year, and I believe the province of Ontario is now as well.
I don't think they offer much fodder for crackers. The worst you can do is bypass the silly video game thing to get your name in a standard drawing.
When this thing first came out in Quebec, in 2000, I was part of the team who did phone support for this thing.
Those of you concerned with needing a bomb of a machine need not worry, as it's only a sprite based game that ran just fine on 3 year old hardware.
As for having kids play, or that being an issue, I don't remember that being a problem either. They did tell us to report any kids or stuff like that, but frankly, this was too dull for kids to get interested in.
The people who did get interested though (especially around the first of the month), were the same people who live big for that first week of the month (beer and casino), and have to eat kd and grilled cheese sandwiches the rest of the month. For the most part, these were not nobel price recipients.
You try to get some illiterate to understand that his video card is in fact not a "Circus Logistic", but a Cirrus Logic, and that he needs to gout and download drivers for it....
At least it payed...
I got the date from this website.
But here's also a quote from the website that gives the typical scenario:
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"Paul McNabb was Maryland's first $1-million lottery winner 20 years ago. He has now seen his last check, the final $50,000 on his two-decade splurge. He now faces life after lottery. Has the money changed him for better or worse? The story is told by the Washington Post.21
"Today McNabb lives in a rented two-bedroom apartment near Lake Mead outside Las Vegas, where he drives taxi on the night shift. He doesn't own a car or any property. The lottery experience has ruined his ability to trust his fellow humanity.
"For a year after his award, his story appeared in dozens of papers, on radio and television, including those in Canada, Britain, and Australia. He received thousands of letters from people wanting money. Religious groups, travel agents, investment counselors, budding film producers, literary groups, poor people all wanted a part of McNabb's good fortune.
"One letter-writer threatened McNabb's two daughters, whose pictures had appeared in newspapers and on television, unless money was forthcoming. He turned the letters over to the FBI. He feared for himself, his daughters, his wife. His house in the Owings Mills area, near Baltimore, was broken into three times, presumably by people who thought $1 million might be lying around, he said. People came to the door, called on the phone, accosted him everywhere. Rather than to continue enjoying this limelight, he ran for cover, to the shores of Lake Mead, where he joined the military.
"'If you had gone through what I went through that first year, you wouldn't have trusted your own mother,' he said. 'Do you realize I've lost 20 years of social life, of being human? I never got over the point that I always had to be on my guard.'
"Stories like this, with variations, can be told about many instant millionaires. Many of gambling's big winners have had their lives turned topsy-turvy. They bear the scars for life.
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The real losers are the winners. But also losing are the losers. And the people who are taking something [state services] for nothing [lottery-style theft], since they are undermining their own society.
In line with fasting, people just might try giving up their little personal evils, and maybe we could all live with a little less government, a little less war, ... I dunno.
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's