Topic: Bitscratch physical bit-coin scratch cards ready to distribute (Read 1948 times)

Interesting points- but some things to take into consideration;

1. The cost of producing the tickets, the profit that physical vendors need to make to sell them, and the distribution costs, means that the payout structure needs to take into consideration the costs of internationally distributing the physical game.  If you saw how much it costs to implement such a thing you would understand that its not 'gouging' like state lotteries, its just making it financially viable.

2. As a full on gambler this probably isn't a product that is for you. There are many online gambling avenues for the professional/hardcore gambler to make his money, which have 0 overhead costs and therefore can offer a 96% payout return and 4% to the house. We are not trying to compete with them.

3. As you said it yourself- this is a novelty. Gaming is supposed to be fun, this is supposed to be fun. Gambling is supposed to be an addiction. Compare it to alcohol, some people go and find a tasty wine or beer, wheras other people stand in the drinks isle doing the math on which beverage has the most alcohol for their dollar, and don't care about the taste.

To sum up- theres 6 billion people in the world, and something for everyone

1)  really cool idea

2)  IMO as a gambler scratch tickets were always laughable. I'll play something small at 96% payout if all my friends want to fire on it and there are free drinks.  Playing a 50% payout game, similar to most USA state lotteries is like lighting the money on fire.  I always thought if someone did scratch tickets right, made it a 95% payout game and didn't try and gauge like the state lotteries have for years, it would become a fun game that recreational gamblers will finally be able to play and only lose a little. 

IMO: make it more fair of a payout structure, and you have yourself a winner.  Keep it 50% payout, it will be a novelty but not very widely played.

Lol, you can smoke at 16, but you have to 18 to buy them. That makes total sense. Anyway, I hope this takes off and people are interested. It hasn't been done as far as I'm aware and they already look pretty awesome.

probably why smoking was 16 for a very long time. Tax them early!

There is one small difference.
Lottery is a sort of tax.. The government controls it and takes a big cut of the money.
With gambling, the government has a lot more trouble getting a cut.

So it is in their best interest to make the lottery age younger than the gambling age.

What, you found an oxymoron in the law? oh my god, this must be the first law ever that didn't make sense

In the UK you only have to be 16 years old to purchase the lottery & scratch cards. But to gamble you have to be 18....aren't they the same thing? lol

it is possible that it may not be legal in the US depending on who is interpreting the law. We are working on a getaround loophole for the american market, but one step at a time. We are young.

We must put a caveat to anyone who is willing to distribute the cards that you are responsible for checking your local laws. Europe has no issue- its just classed as a 'raffle' in most jurisdictions. In the UK you can get a scratch card in the local paper which wins you a holiday/car etc. Its really only the yanks who are hung up on gambling (and drugs, tits, alcohol, guns....oh wait scrub guns) but even so I have samples shipping to Americans interested in distributing as I speak, so lets see if they come up with any issues.

This is AWESOME.

Sadly this would be quite illegal in the US.

However, as soon as I make enough money to build my moon base. I will happily distribute them there.

America already considers BTC something of value, they consider it real and to treat it as it was "foreign currency".

That being said, while you have a cool idea, it doesn't appear this would be legal in the states.

Hi,

if you look closely, surrounding the QR code is the private and public keys, for people who dont have a reader. Sorry, when we scratched the card to show people that it is a real scratch card, we wanted to leave a bit of scratchable on for effect. Catch 22 problem

What if u don't have anything to bloop that 2D barcode with?

[erm, I have a scanner function on my Lexmark, will that help?]

PM sent btw

Bump, still got quite a few samples left, PM me if you want some free scratchcard samples.

I'm glad someone finally tried this, it was bothering me a bit. A few months ago while in the shower I had considered this idea but skipped it for what I expected would be a general lack of interest from the community. That happens quite a lot though so I'm always happy to see those ideas realized by others so I can enjoy the success vicariously.

Good luck mate!

To be honest, American gaming laws are very very complicated and I confess that at this time I could not give you a definitive answer to the American question.

First you would have to get past the Federal gaming laws, and also the interpretation of them.

The US federal definition of gambling is this;

A person engages in gambling if he stakes or risks something of value upon the outcome of a contest of chance or a future contingent event not under his control or influence, upon an agreement or understanding that he or someone else will receive something of value in the event of a certain outcome.

It is really up to interpretation. Until the US government recognises officially Bitcoin as 'SOMETHING OF VALUE' then the big question is something of value being risked?

After all a bitcoin is currently just a string of numbers and all you can win from this game is a string of numbers. As a pure novelty item only, which wins nothing of value, I imagine that it could fall into a grey area of US law.

US law technically would make the physical bit-coins being minted by Casaiscus illegal, but they trade with ease. And under the US federal law on gaming, technically even an advertisement for a foreign lottery is illegal or visiting an online gaming site.

At the end of the day law is usually all about what someone is willing to enforce, and who is complaining about it. I doubt that for instance Bitscratch cards will be circulating in your local Amish community anytime soon. However downtown LA, I am sure some people would love to have the chance to play these 'valueless' cards.

I would be very interested to hear a legal opinion from anyone qualified in this area.

What are the legal issues with this selling in America? I don't believe it would be legal at all.

By my calculations, Every 10,000 cards sold produces 200 BTC in revenue. Of that 200 BTC revenue, 100.5 BTC is paid out to the winning addresses.

What is the EV?

This is so sexy...