Case information

Legislation — Interpretation — Gaming — “Game of mixed chance and skill” — Application for declaration that GotSkill not game of chance or mixed chance and skill — GotSkill not game of chance — Whether GotSkill is game of mixed chance and skill — Whether element of chance must frustrate or oppose player’s attempt to exercise skill in game such that it could be said to “defeat” player’s attempt to exercise skill — Criminal Code, R.S.C. 1985, c. C 46, s. 197(1).

Case summaries are prepared by the Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada (Law Branch). Please note that summaries are not provided to the Judges of the Court. They are placed on the Court file and website for information purposes only.

Play for Fun Studios Inc. applied for a declaration that a game it distributes, GotSkill, is not “a game of chance or mixed chance and skill”, which are prohibited by the Criminal Code, R.S.C. 1985, c. C 46, s. 197(1). It was agreed that it was not a game of pure chance. A player of GotSkill uses a touchscreen to choose how many credits to wager by selecting a “Potential Next Win” from among those offered in that instance. The player must then complete a skill task which consists of stopping a cursor moving at a constant speed through 21 bars arrayed across the screen as close to the middle as possible. Nothing about the game seeks to defeat the player’s ability to stop the cursor. Stopping it at the first bar results in a value of 55%; the values rise regularly until the exact middle, which has a value of 110%, and then fall regularly back to 55% at the last bar. The credits are adjusted accordingly, and the player can redeem their credits or select a new Potential Next Win over any of the themes. Players only know the Potential Next Win for the current game.

First time players in Ontario play for approximately 25 30 minutes and use an average of $16 in credits, not including those awarded as part of the game. The ultimate reward received by the player depends on the Potential Next Win level chosen by the player and the player’s ability to perform the skill task. However, while a player who achieves 110% in all 1,000 tickets in a group would receive a modest benefit, achieving 100% would result in a net loss.

Schreck J. made the requested declaration. The Court of Appeal allowed the appeal and declared GotSkill to be a game of mixed skill and chance for the purpose of s. 197(1) of the Criminal Code.