This video was made possible by Tab for a
Cause. Raise money for charity with every tab you
open by signing up at the link in the description. In times of turmoil, it’s important to remember
that all Americans are united by one shared dream: the dream of Steve Harvey showing up
on our doorstep with a large novelty check from Publishers Clearing House. You see, more than 55 million Americans enter
some form of sweepstakes or contest every year, and these promotions net around $2.8
billion annually for the companies that host them, which might make some of you think “gee,
that’s a lot of work for poor Steve Harvey,” but the smarter of you might think “gee,
those figures kind of pale in comparison to the $71 billion dollars that Americans spend
on the lottery annually—I mean, really, why don’t these companies just host lotteries
instead? Aren’t sweepstakes just convoluted lotteries? Is this a setup for a long explanation of
American lottery law?” Well, in order to answer those questions,
we first need a long explanation of American lottery law. Right, so, by definition, a lottery has three
key components: a winner chosen by chance, a prize that has value, and the exchange of
money or something of value to enter. Now, only state governments can legally run
lotteries, so in order for private businesses to run contests legally, they need to eliminate
one of these components. Most do this by eliminating the third—the
entry fee. Businesses generally attach their sweepstakes
to the purchase of a product, but provide a free method of entry in the fine print. Yep, that’s right—any legal sweepstakes
in the United States can be entered for free. That time you suffered through sixty-five
boxes of dry, tasteless animal crackers only to win a lifetime supply of more animal crackers? You could’ve done that for free—kind of. In reality, most of these “alternate methods
of entry” require divulging tons of personal data that can then be packaged and sold to
telemarketers who will haunt you for the rest of your life, so, really, they’re only free
if you don’t value your sanity, or lost it altogether sometime maybe around March
2020. Now, this loophole might work wonders for
money-grubbing Yanks, but it doesn’t quite cut it up north—or down south, actually,
if you live in Detroit. Canadian law prohibits “disposing of any
property by lots, cards, tickets or any mode of chance” whatsoever—theoretically, this
means no lotteries, no sweepstakes, and no gambling on the outcome of underground chimpanzee
wrestling matches even if the underground chimpanzee wrestling matches provide a free
method of entry in the fine print. However, bigger Minnesota, also called Canada,
still wants to run contests so, since the 19th century, Canadians have tried to subvert
these laws by adding small tests of skill to their lotteries and sweepstakes as a qualification
for claiming the prize, which means that they’re not technically games of chance—y’know,
sort of like how pizza isn’t technically a vegetable, or spending your entire paycheck
on Half as Interesting t-shirts isn’t technically a good idea. Up until a few decades ago, private businesses
and the Canadian government constantly went to court over what did and didn’t count
as a game of skill. For example, guessing beans in a jar—according
to the Ontario High Court of Justice, that’s a skill. Peeling a potato—not so much. Estimating the time that it would take for
a barrel to float down a river—pure skill. Answering questions about the city of Montreal—nope. Answering questions about the city of Montreal
with the correct answers given to the player before they respond—shockingly, also a no. Sniping a turkey from fifty yards with a rifle? Well, this should be obvious: of course not,
what sort of early 20th century gentleman can’t snipe a turkey from fifty yards with
a rifle? This squabbling finally came to a head in
1984, when a Canadian court approved a simple math equation as a suitable test of skill
for sweepstakes and lotteries: (((228 x 21 + 10,824) / 12) - 1,121). Go on, I’ll give you a few seconds to do
some quick maths. Just pretend like your ownership of a brand-new
luxury catamaran depends on it, but also, feel free to pause the video and use a calculator,
because, much like the Canadian Competition Bureau, I have no way of monitoring when,
where, and how you solve the equation. Also, much like the Canadian Competition Bureau,
I really don’t care that much. Alright, time’s up! Did you get 180? I really hope you did, because this was about
as easy to cheat on as online AP tests. Anyway, this case set an important precedent
and four-part math equations were adopted nationwide, regulating the largest national
lotteries and the smallest local giveaways. Over time, these problems have gotten even
simpler, sometimes only using three parts and single-digit numbers, or even asking contestants
to divide by 1. But, after all, basic arithmetic isn’t quite
as simple as sniping a turkey from fifty yards with a rifle, so it’s still possible to
screw up—though that doesn’t necessarily mean that you lose the prize. In fact, a cursory search of Google finds
just one example of someone who even came close to being punished for failing a skill-testing
question. The woman in question won a GPS in a 2007
Tim Horton’s giveaway, and was asked to solve 8 x 6 - 5 + 9. She gave the answer of 51. Tim Horton’s asked her to submit a different
answer, but, feeling satisfied with her first answer, she submitted 51 again. Tim Horton’s denied her the GPS at first,
but after submitting several complaints over the course of two months, she eventually got
her prize anyway. So, we all like free money, right? And we all like helping others, right? So, what if I told you you could generate
free money that is used to help others by doing basically nothing? I mean, that’s crazy right? Nope, that’s Tab for a Cause. This browser extension displays a few small
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Question about the beginning of the video, that American flag in the first cut looks like it only has 13 big stars spaced like the 50 star flag. Does anyone know what it is?
Good video.. what irks me is that some online contests that one can enter and in the contest rules it states that the promoter will only call the winning person - not fair and not accessible to people who are hard of hearing or deaf - they can't receive the phone call and answer the math question to win whatever prize!