New 'Rock, Paper, Scissors' game to replace ALC's failed 'GeoSweep'

Moncton —  Days after writing off their $8.7M investment in Geonomics, the British-based company behind the ill-fated GeoSweep game, the Atlantic Lottery Corporation has announced their latest initiative. The Manatee spoke with ALC spokesperson Fern Terrion, who unveiled the new game.

“Our research indicated,” started Terrion, “that the GeoSweep game was not well-suited for the New Brunswick market. Often, people would attempt to find a particular place on the map to place their bet. This could be their own home or some other place of significance, such as the place where they met their spouse or where they got their first fine for public intoxication.

“Unfortunately, not all lottery players are capable of reading a map, which caused anger, confusion and ultimately the players wound up going down to their local convenience stores to purchase scratch tickets,” she continued with a sigh. “Those that were able to find their home on the map immediately ran outside to find their ‘flag’ on their front lawn but were disappointed to find it wasn’t there, causing them to rage-quit.

“After carefully studying our market research — which admittedly we didn’t do very well the first time — we have developed what we think will be a more suitable lottery game for our target audience.”

Terrion continued to outline the premise for ALC’s new game, “Rock, Paper, Scissors.” The rules are simple: rock beats scissors, scissors beat paper, paper beats rock and nothing beats the fun you’ll have playing it. To play the game, people simply walk up to their local lottery retailer, put a toonie on the counter and count to 3 while shaking their fist. If the customer beats the retailer, they get back their toonie and a loonie; if the customer loses, the retailer and ALC split the $2 bet.

“The ALC is pleased to offer this new and entertaining game to New Brunswick lottery players,” concluded Terrion. “We’re sure that this game will catch on and we will recoup the $4.6M we spent developing it within 12 to 18 months. Please, remember to play responsibly.”