As people quickly found out at this evening’s quizzes, we have had to change our format to avoid potential problems with the Oregon State Police Lottery Division. They state that three things define gambling: prize, consideration, and chance. The house can never win, for one thing, and I firmly believe that our game has always been a game of skill, not chance. After all, if you know all the answers (skill), you will win the game. And if multiple people know all the answers, they will ALL win. Not according to the detective at the OSP. If you play the game, and you pay to play the game, you are taking a “chance” on winning. Golly, I take a chance on paying $40 for a concert that it will be good. I also take a chance that I won’t get burned on coffee I order from McDonalds. If I pay $75 for a ticket for consideration at a Blazer game that they lose, and I also don’t get the t-shirt that they shoot up into the crowd with a cannon in between quarters, did I then gamble my chance at seeing a Blazer win and lose my chance at winning a t-shirt?
If you know all the answers to the questions at a quiz, there’s no CHANCE you could lose. Therein lies the rub. I welcome feedback and comments on the topic, and I do grieve the change in formats.
[...] not taking any money. For more on that, especially if you have any feedback, see Alisa’s post here. The Maiden was kind enough to provide a nice prize for our 1st place [...]
We’re all very saddened to hear about the cops putting the kibosh on our little competition. I enjoyed taking other people’s money, and Pub Quiz won’t be the same without the possibility of doing that.
I have a couple of thoughts on how you can continue to keep Pub Quiz in largely the same format. First, contact a lawyer. There’s got to be some legal loophole you can use to make Pub Quiz legit. After all, how is it that seniors can play bingo at the VFW with impunity, but we can’t do our little quiz?
After thinking about it for a long time, I have devised a system for getting around the law. It’s inspired by street venders in Washington DC. There, it is illegal to sell jewelry on the street. So vendors will sell you a $25 sticker that happens to come with a free necklace. (Warning: I am not a lawyer or a legal scholar and have no real way of knowing if what I am proposing is legitimate.)
1. Have set cash prizes for the winners. Depending on the size of the expected crowd, maybe $80 for first and $40 for second or something like that.
2. Make the quiz free to enter.
3. Have the venue charge a $1 cover on quiz night. This would apply to all patrons, whether they play or not.
4. Have the venue charge people for the handouts for the quiz that day, maybe around $10.
5. Increase the fees to the establishment by roughly the amount taken in from cover and handout sales.
I think you can see where this is going. Since the quiz is free, the cops can’t be mad that you’re giving away money to people. If a team arrives before the bar starts charging cover and does not pay for the handouts, they can still win, although they’ll have to be really good to win without getting points from handouts. Under this process, a team of six will still have to pay $16 to arrive at a reasonable hour and have handouts.
Something to think about.
Let me try the post again without it cutting off the end of the line. (Stupid me, I composed in Word first.)
We’re all very saddened to hear about the cops putting the kibosh on our little competition. I enjoyed taking other people’s money, and Pub Quiz won’t be the same without the possibility of doing that.
I have a couple of thoughts on how you can continue to keep Pub Quiz in largely the same format. First, contact a lawyer. There’s got to be some legal loophole you can use to make Pub Quiz legit. After all, how is it that seniors can play bingo at the VFW with impunity, but we can’t do our little quiz?
After thinking about it for a long time, I have devised a system for getting around the law. It’s inspired by street vendors in Washington DC. There, it is illegal to sell jewelry on the street. So vendors will sell you a $25 sticker that happens to come with a free necklace. (Warning: I am not a lawyer or a legal scholar and have no real way of knowing if what I am proposing is legitimate.)
1. Have set cash prizes for the winners. Depending on the size of the expected crowd, maybe $80 for first and $40 for second or something like that.
2. Make the quiz free to enter.
3. Have the venue charge a $1 cover on quiz night. This would apply to all patrons, whether they play or not.
4. Have the venue charge people for the handouts for the quiz that day, maybe around $10.
5. Increase the fees to the establishment by roughly the amount taken in from cover and handout sales.
I think you can see where this is going. Since the quiz is free, the cops can’t be mad that you’re giving away money to people. If a team arrives before the bar starts charging cover and does not pay for the handouts, they can still win, although they’ll have to be really good to win without getting points from handouts. Under this process, a team of six will still have to pay $16 to arrive at a reasonable hour and have handouts.
Something to think about.
I agree with the above mentioned statement, there’s got to be a way around the LOTTO and the LAW. We need Scooby’s Red Rocket to put their law degrees to work and help us out here….Scoob?