Deal Or No Deal Takes The US By Storm!
While Noel Edmonds continues to enjoy a massive revival in his career, his Deal or No Deal show has been sold to a number of countries around the world. The show gives contestants the chance to win up to £250,000 simply by trying to guess what is in an array of boxes and deciding whether to take the offer for their box from the Banker, or ‘gamble’. However is it really gambling?
The show is currently enjoying a very successful run on the NBC network, where it has attracted both viewing figures and controversy in equal measures. Michael and Michele Hardin took part in one of the ‘text in’ games whereby you text in for the chance to open a competition box and take the winnings. Strangely enough they waited until they had text the show about 6 times before they decided to take the matter to court. They argued that the ‘text in’ competition was an illegal form of gambling, hence the money should be returned to all players.
The case found its way to the Supreme Court in Georgia and while Mr and Mrs Hardin believed that they had a strong case, it was deemed that you could not view a text message as a bet and the case was thrown out of court. However, with more court cases expected to hit the courts very soon, it does beg the question what is a bet?
When you consider that gambling is defined as ‘wagering money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods’, do the contestants really have a case or are they just trying their luck?
It will be interesting to see how the remaining court cases are handled and the eventual outcome.
