Gambling has been given a new face and technological twist with the recent launch of a new lottery in the UK: the location-based game, GeoSweep, which combines Google Maps with a cash lottery.
The game lets players "buy" locations, called “Geos” in the game, represented on a satellite map of the UK. Each Geo has a cost of £3 for an ownership period of 30 days, and includes a stake for the chance to win £1 million. Once purchased, the player can give their Geos a name or some other identification. Additionally you can share the reason you bought that plot. Is it a lucky place? Is it the house where you were born? Well, you can explain your reasoning behind your lot purchase with a short note.
Two daily draws select winners from those who have purchased Geos. The first drawing has a guaranteed minimum prize pot of £5,000 while the second is the chance to win £1,000,000. The biggest draw for lottery players also may be that the odds are supposed to be 233 percent better than the National Lottery.
Prize zones are selected randomly using quantum optics. For the daily guarantied draw, an occupied Geo is selected at random and then a zone is expanded around it until 100 Geos are selected, occupied or not. The Geo that was selected as the center of the zone wins the main prize and all those occupied Geos surrounding it within the selected zone win secondary prizes. The main £1 million prize is also selected in the same random fashion, though this time an unoccupied Geo may be selected. Once that Geo is selected, again a zone of 100 Geos is created around it. If the central Geo is occupied, the owner gets the £1 million prize. All occupied Geos within the zone get smaller secondary prizes.
It will be curious to watch this game, because I can honestly see turf wars breaking out as residents attempt to control the Geos that rest over their towns, as well as taking over surrounding neighborhoods if given the chance. In that regard, GeoSweep's subscription model should provide a strong income source to maintain the lottery.
If this game were to come to the States, or your country would you play it? I'm not one who is big on gambling, but the geography aspect of this makes it a little more interesting to me.
A little bit of whatever the world has to offer
oO
ReplyDeletei don't know if this is a good or bad idea.
well, we will see how this works out.
whoa man geo sweep is super fun haahah
ReplyDeleteThat is a pretty cool idea! Though, I doubt I would play it as I tend to not do subscription based things. I was really impressed with the technology used to generate the random numbers. Good ol' quantum physics doing what it does best... whatever that is. ;]
ReplyDelete@aGas, Your icon is awesome. Commander Keen for the win.
cool! i hope it comes to the US...
ReplyDeletethat takes alot of spending. I hate the lottery, this seems more entertaining. To maximize chances of winning it would see you would have to buy plots as far as the winning square in distance...
ReplyDeleteI'm still unclear about getting your money back, till when can you get your money back?
It sure sounds neat. While I doubt I would play it (not a fan of gambling), I would definitely be interested in seeing other people spend money on it :D
ReplyDeleteWow that looks like a load of fun.
ReplyDelete