5 ms·

As far as I know, most US-based companies don't like doing chance-based giveaways with the potential to have a winner in Canada. Even though it's not that hard,

As far as I know, most US-based companies don't like doing chance-based giveaways with the potential to have a winner in Canada. Even though it's not that hard, it's still extra work.

garmaine 8y ago
Why would that be a problem?
- ceejayoz 8y ago
  Quebec imposes a bunch of additional requirements and fees. https://www.thebalanceeveryday.com/why-are-so-many-competitions-void-in-quebec-896835 https://www.thebalanceeveryday.com/why-are-so-many-competiti...
- ubernostrum 8y ago
  Generally, Canadian law doesn't allow games of pure chance to be run for profit, outside of a handful of exceptions like the government-run lotteries. So to run this type of promotion in Canada, you need to set up a façade of presenting it as a game of skill or mixed skill/chance instead, which usually involves something like having a prospective winner answer a math question. Look up "skill-testing question Canada" for more info. And Québec in particular has piles of extra rules on top of that, which often leads to "offer not valid in Québec" as part of the promotion.
  - Buge 8y ago
    I was reading the rules for the Google CTF > CONTEST IS OPEN TO RESIDENTS [...] WORLDWIDE, EXCEPT FOR QUEBEC, CRIMEA, CUBA, IRAN, SYRIA, NORTH KOREA, and SUDAN. Quebec seems to stand out in that list. https://capturetheflag.withgoogle.com/rules.pdf https://capturetheflag.withgoogle.com/rules.pdf
  - slavik81 8y ago
    That doesn't make sense as a motivation, though, because they followed those regulations anyways. They ran it in Canada every single year. Heck, last year they customized it by renaming all of the pieces after Canadian landmarks [1]. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald%27s_Monopoly#Rare_pieces_in_US/Canada https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald%27s_Monopoly#Rare_pie...
  - refurb 8y ago
    Great summary! I remember being young and seeing lottery tickets with simple math problems like “25 * 4 - 20 = ?” to get around the “no games of chance” laws. My brother won a Sony Watchman (mini-TV) and we all double checked his math before redeeming.
HillaryBriss 8y ago
But couldn't McDonalds have simply stated, from the outset, that the contest was valid only in the US?
caf 8y ago
In this case though, the allegation is that the chance-based giveaway was still operated and promoted in Canada, but the prize-distribution was skewed so that no prizes went there. Which, from a regulatory point of view, seems strictly worse than running an honest game.

As far as I know, most US-based companies don't like doing chance-based giveaways with the potential to have a winner in Canada. Even though it's not that hard, it's still extra work.

garmaine 8y ago

Why would that be a problem?

ceejayoz 8y ago
Quebec imposes a bunch of additional requirements and fees. https://www.thebalanceeveryday.com/why-are-so-many-competitions-void-in-quebec-896835 https://www.thebalanceeveryday.com/why-are-so-many-competiti...
ubernostrum 8y ago
Generally, Canadian law doesn't allow games of pure chance to be run for profit, outside of a handful of exceptions like the government-run lotteries. So to run this type of promotion in Canada, you need to set up a façade of presenting it as a game of skill or mixed skill/chance instead, which usually involves something like having a prospective winner answer a math question. Look up "skill-testing question Canada" for more info. And Québec in particular has piles of extra rules on top of that, which often leads to "offer not valid in Québec" as part of the promotion.
- Buge 8y ago
  I was reading the rules for the Google CTF > CONTEST IS OPEN TO RESIDENTS [...] WORLDWIDE, EXCEPT FOR QUEBEC, CRIMEA, CUBA, IRAN, SYRIA, NORTH KOREA, and SUDAN. Quebec seems to stand out in that list. https://capturetheflag.withgoogle.com/rules.pdf https://capturetheflag.withgoogle.com/rules.pdf
- slavik81 8y ago
  That doesn't make sense as a motivation, though, because they followed those regulations anyways. They ran it in Canada every single year. Heck, last year they customized it by renaming all of the pieces after Canadian landmarks [1]. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald%27s_Monopoly#Rare_pieces_in_US/Canada https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald%27s_Monopoly#Rare_pie...
- refurb 8y ago
  Great summary! I remember being young and seeing lottery tickets with simple math problems like “25 * 4 - 20 = ?” to get around the “no games of chance” laws. My brother won a Sony Watchman (mini-TV) and we all double checked his math before redeeming.

HillaryBriss 8y ago

But couldn't McDonalds have simply stated, from the outset, that the contest was valid only in the US?

caf 8y ago

In this case though, the allegation is that the chance-based giveaway was still operated and promoted in Canada, but the prize-distribution was skewed so that no prizes went there. Which, from a regulatory point of view, seems strictly worse than running an honest game.