So I just entered a contest to win $1,000,000 from Pontiac, upon reading the rules, it mentions that if someone from Canada won, they would have to complete a "skill test" or questionair....I have seen this before, what the heck is up with that???

So it's okay to be totally stupid in the USA and win, but not Canada???

For the contest, I ended up taking a picture and e-mailing it, I didn't want to use my work cell phone and end up having to split the prize with work

If anyone wins due to me telling you about it, I expect a nice little kick back

Win a million dollars....US of course, hahahaha

QUOTE (Mueller @ Mar 16 2005, 06:06 PM)

So it's okay to be totally stupid in the USA and win, but not Canada???

Some patriot you are.....I think you may have that bassakwards

It has to do with our lottery laws here. If you give something away you sometimes have to have a skill testing question to be able to win the item.

This dosn't apply to Lottery (government) cash winnings which are tax free.

There are different lottery laws in Quebec (not sure what they are).

QUOTE (SLITS @ Mar 16 2005, 08:10 PM)

[/QUOTE] I think you may have that bassakwards

Don't think so.
I might have to answer some type of skill testing question first though
if I'm right.

I think the Canadian government wants to make sure
you understand and know how to pay taxes before
they let you have a large sum of anything. So they
figure if you can answer a skill testing question
you can pay taxes.

I'll bet it's actually an anti-gambling law. If you win something, it has to be as a result of a "test of skill", not just the random roll of the dice. So, poker is OK, but roulette or slots aren't. I believe there are (or were) similar laws in many US states for quite some time. Early pinball machines were strictly random (like pachinko), with no flippers, and they paid YOU, just like a slot machine. When this ran afoul of the anti-gambling laws, flippers were added to turn it into a test of skill, and thus, it wasn't "gambling", but a "test of skill".

The lottery, I'm sure, came along much later, and required a special out clause in the law, since it's not a test of skill. Unless they also have special outs, things like church raffles and bingo nights are also disallowed under such laws. But a church trivia quiz would be OK.

yeah those kind of sweep stake are prohobated in quebec..

If you're stupid you can't win anything in Canada. It's just another way 'the man' keeps us stupid people down.

QUOTE (Mueller @ Mar 16 2005, 05:06 PM)

So I just entered a contest to win $1,000,000 from Pontiac, upon reading the rules, it mentions that if someone from Canada won, they would have to complete a "skill test" or questionair....I have seen this before, what the heck is up with that??? So it's okay to be totally stupid in the USA and win, but not Canada??? For the contest, I ended up taking a picture and e-mailing it, I didn't want to use my work cell phone and end up having to split the prize with work If anyone wins due to me telling you about it, I expect a nice little kick back Win a million dollars....US of course, hahahaha

Hey Mueller, are you sure you didn't get a pic of a hopped up Civic....hard to tell the difference, except in 10 years the civic will still be worth something....Pontiac indeed....

QUOTE (jimtab @ Mar 16 2005, 10:00 PM)

QUOTE (Mueller @ Mar 16 2005, 05:06 PM) So I just entered a contest to win $1,000,000 from Pontiac, upon reading the rules, it mentions that if someone from Canada won, they would have to complete a "skill test" or questionair....I have seen this before, what the heck is up with that??? So it's okay to be totally stupid in the USA and win, but not Canada???  :wacko: For the contest, I ended up taking a picture and e-mailing it, I didn't want to use my work cell phone and end up having to split the prize with work  :D If anyone wins due to me telling you about it, I expect a nice little kick back Win a million dollars....US of course, hahahaha Hey Mueller, are you sure you didn't get a pic of a hopped up Civic....hard to tell the difference, except in 10 years the civic will still be worth something....Pontiac indeed....

nah, I went to the Pontiac dealer and walked around aimlessly looking for one

I bet the new GTO's are a blast to drive with the new 6.0 motor, too bad they look like a Saturn

it was funny, here I am taking a picture of the car and one of the salesguys comes cruising up in his golf cart, asked if I wanted to drive the G6 and I politly declined, said I was just entering a contest.....it's put on by Pontiac and he was clueless when I mentioned it

Can't say I'm surprised, there are so few good car salesmen these days, they just don't know shit about what they're selling, wtf? I hope you take their money tho....

As it happens, the Pontiac GTO is NA in Canada. Can't even find specs on it.
A friend has a 2003 Marauder. Really nice. 30 or 40 HP more than the US version. Easily outruns the Police Interceptor model which is why the cops favour them. Who else could get away with a bit of spirited driving?

I know this, or rather, I used to know this, in a previous life. It is indeed an anti-gambling issue. The rules are that a game cannot entirely be chance, hence to win, you need to have yout ticken drawn and to answer the skill testing question. Questions usually are'nt too hard, but they'll require at least a tiny amount of work like : add 1,589,888 and 34,678,234.

In addition, there usually is a rule that people have to be able to enter the for free i.e. no purchase necessary. So if the entry ticket is on the label of a box of cereal, consummers have to allowed to enter by submitting a copy of the label.

The federal government used its anti-trust laws to make these rules (could never really figure out how it was related) and provinces have consummer protection laws that will usually have an impact too.

Once upon a time I could have answered all those questions in detail, but I found something more fun to do for a living !

Michel Richard
914/6 2.2E MFI

Don't be too worried about not winning/ the questions are somthing like this
3+5-6= and you go from there....
hope you can figure it out.... if not I will do the math and we can split it.....