How to guarantee a win from Burger King's contest?

May 18, 2005 11:01 AM

I know that some contests have cheats so you can usually win... Are there any ways to "cheat" on scratch off contests where there are two boxes to choose from? Specifically, Burger King's "Choose your Destiny" contest.
posted by ajpresto to Food & Drink (5 answers total)

I've often wondered that myself (specifically with the 1980s Arizona lottery tickets, where scratching the wrong box would result in a losing ticket). I often wondered if a strong-enough laser would make that thin coat of latex translucent. Anyone here have access to a laser lab?
posted by rolypolyman at 12:06 PM on May 18, 2005

If I remember from the last time I examined one, the paper, ink, and "scratch-off stuff" (SOS) form a system that is essentially invisible to all visible light wavelengths. (That is, the paper blocks part of the spectrum, as does the SOS, and the ink is invisible to the remained of the spectrum.)

However, perhaps a UV or IR light could pull it off, given enough wattage. But you'll need film that is sensitive in that range, which means that it's not really a in-the-field sort of thing.

But, who knows, really, without a lot of tests?
posted by Netzapper at 1:12 PM on May 18, 2005

Once, several (8?) years ago, my friend and I managed to charm a contest promoter into giving us the winning scratch-off tickets. So there's gotta be some way to tell just by looking at them... a code of some sorts, perhaps?
posted by Kololo at 1:32 PM on May 18, 2005

It's more likely that they're in two different stacks before they're shuffled. AND, each ticket has a serial number on it, which links back to how much it won (this is how they actually do verification).
posted by Netzapper at 1:43 PM on May 18, 2005

Not sure, but I wish like heck that I knew of a hack. I had a scratch-off KFC thing. Scratched one - $1M, scratched the one next to it - $1M and was all "no way it'll be the adjacent box" and scratched a non-adjacent box - $1.

I also wish I hadn't scratched all of the boxes to see if it could have been a winner. Yep. It was that adjacent box.

/kicks self
posted by PurplePorpoise at 4:05 PM on May 18, 2005