You Maybe Able To Help Solve A Mystery

I opened three packs of Updates & Highlights today and only pulled two cards that interest me.

I decided to enter Topps' No Purchase Necessary contest just for the hell of it because I had never done so before and when reading the instructions I read the weirdest thing...

"Potential Canadian winners will be required to first correctly answer the mathematical skill-testing question. Include on a 3 x 5 card the answer to the following skill-test question
10 x 2 + 8 -4 = ?"


Click on the above image to see it for yourself [I've underlined it in red].

What is the possible logic of this requirement?

Comments

Anonymous said…
Lotteries and other games of chance where a person has to pay an entry fee in order to win a monetary prize (or in the case of cards, something that could be exchanged for money) are illegal in Canada.

If entry in the Topps contest were completely free, it wouldn't be a problem. But Canada considers the cost of postage an "entry fee", just like the cost of a lottery ticket.

To get around this, the "game of chance" becomes a "game of skill" -- ergo the math question, even though it's a simple one. That way, the winners don't by luck, but rather skill -- or so the loophole goes.

At least, that's the way I remember it -- I may have the details slightly wrong or maybe the law has changed over the years, but the math puzzle for Canadian residents has been on cards for years....

Eh?
Matt Flaten said…
It is weird because I swear I've read these wrappers a million times and the Canadian thing would have jumped out at me before...

Canada does have a national lottery so that puts a twist on things too...
Captain Canuck said…
our lottery tickets have math problems on the backs too...
zman40 said…
When I went to a Blue Jay game, I signed up for some contest and was too drunk to figure out the problem. Luckily, a smart Canadian was there for me to cheat off of. I still didn't win.
Dinged Corners said…
The other big question is, what's going on with Derek Jeter's hair?