DCHP-2
skill-testing question DCHP-2 (July 2016)
n. — Law
a question posed to the winner of a contest so that it can be classified as a game of skill rather than of chance.
Type: 1. Origin — Skill-testing questions are usually simple arithmetic problems posed to winners of promotional contests as a way to work within gambling laws (see also the 2000 and 2007 quotations). Since a court ruling in 1984, the posing of such a question is a legal requirement enforced by the Competition Bureau of Canada, but the expression was in use earlier, as the quotations demonstrate. Other acceptable skill tests include estimating the number of beans in a jar, and estimating the future temperatures of cities (see also the 2011 quotation and the Competition Bureau website). Canadians must also answer a skill-testing question when they enter international contests in which they are eligible to win (see the 2016 quotation).
Chart 1 shows that skill-testing question is almost exclusively used in Canada.
