What are the odds? Canada’s most iconic contest has been impacted by the coronavirus

It’s a Canadian rite of passage: rolling up the rim of a paper coffee cup at Tim Hortons to see if you’ve won a prize. The giant coffee chain officially launched this year’s Roll up the Rim contest on Wednesday, but was forced to make a number of changes to the rules because of concerns about COVID-19. What concerns? Well, employees at Tim Hortons shouldn’t be handling contest game pieces – the winning rims – that have been in people’s mouths. The solution was to make Roll up the Rim an entirely digital game this year: buy a coffee and maybe the cash register will declare you a winner, plus you get an extra “digital roll” on the company’s loyalty rewards app.

So beyond the health concerns, what do the new rules mean in terms of someone’s chances of winning? Today in The Conversation Canada, statistician Michael Wallace of the University of Waterloo tells us that when trying to calculate the odds, adding a digital element means the Roll up the Rim contest is more like a slot machine now.

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Nehal El-Hadi

Science + Technology Editor

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By adding a ‘digital roll’ to its iconic game, Tim Hortons’ Roll up the Rim contest now has some statistical similarities to slot machines. (Photo Illustration/The Conversation)

Roll up the Rim: How COVID-19 has changed the contest — and maybe your odds of winning

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