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CT Lottery to Offer PC Game

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the evercrack-has-a-new-competitor dept.

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?"

5 of 301 comments (clear)

  1. Shouldn't this be construed as on-line betting? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

  2. What do I think? by Lawbeefaroni · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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
  3. Crackers by Dirk+Pitt · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I read the article and it's pretty vague on how the game actually informs you of a payoff -- if all of the games are the same and give a chance at winning, you can bet that this will be cracked in less than 24 hours.

    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.

  4. Lottery & ATM's by ch-chuck · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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); }
  5. Re:Can you blame them though? by gmack · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.