Slashdot Mirror
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.
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.