Skill element lets industry get around Canadian law

Here's a skill-testing question: Why do contest winners have to answer skill-testing questions?

Answer: It's a peculiarity of Canadian law.

Under the Criminal Code, it is illegal to hold a lottery without a licence. Giving away a prize based on chance alone -- a random draw, for instance -- is considered a form of lottery.

The contest industry invented the skill-testing question to get around that restriction. If a contest includes an element of skill, it is no longer considered purely a game of chance.

"It's a loophole, basically, and to the best of my knowledge Canada is the only country that has that requirement," said Toronto lawyer Brenda Pritchard, who is co-authoring a book called Advertising and Marketing Law in Canada that devotes an entire chapter to contests.

Any old question won't do, however.

A ridiculously easy one such as "What is your name?" or "What colour is the sky?" wouldn't cut it under the law. The question has to require some skill -- but not so much skill that people would get it wrong.

The last thing contest organizers want is to withhold a prize because someone goofed on the question -- although in a small percentage of cases that does happen.

In a trend-setting case in 1984, the Alberta Provincial Court ruled that, to meet the definition of skill-testing, a question must include multiplication, addition, subtraction and division.

In light of that ruling, virtually all skill-testing questions today are mathematical in nature.

Another contest curiosity is the words "no purchase necessary." Under Canadian law, organizers cannot demand payment as a condition for entering a contest. Therefore, contests are required to provide another means of entering apart from purchasing a product.

So, if you don't like coffee but still want to play Roll Up The Rim To Win, you can write to Tim Hortons for a free cup.