Skill testing question
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Skill testing questions are a legal requirement attached to all contests in Canada.
The Canadian Competition Act bans games of chance, with the exception of provincial lotteries, and licensed casinos and charity events. Many stores, radio stations, and other groups still wish to hold contests to encourage more purchases or increase consumer interest. A classic example of such as contest is Tim Hortons' Roll up the Rim to Win, that gives chance to win prizes with every cup of coffee purchased, with prizes ranging from vehicles to doughnuts. These organizations take advantage of the fact that the law does allow prizes to be given for games of skill. In order to make the luck based contests legal the company thus adds a supposedly skill testing question.
The most common form for these questions to take is a mathematical equation. A court decision ruled that the equations must contain at least three operations to actually be skill testing. Thus a common question might be 2 × 4 + 10 × 3. (Answer: 38.)
For contests held in the United States or other countries that are open to Canadians the questions must also be asked of any Canadian winner.
Enforcement of these rules is not very stringent, however, and, especially for small prizes they will not be asked. Getting the question wrong is also often not an obstacle to receiving the reward.