Current issues, feedback & complaints on public services in Malaysia
I REFER to the letter “Hefty phone bill for taking part in contest” (The Star, Jan 20), where a family member of the writer lost a lot of money participating in an Astro interactive game.
The production of these interactive game shows such as Fulus Mania, Celebmania, Teka-Teki and Puthayal, to name a few, are increasing alarmingly and becoming so popular in almost all TV stations.
The questions asked are often simple with a straightforward answer, thus making it easy for children and young adults to fall into the scheme, believing that they will eventually win.
The TV stations claim that there are certain “rules” to win i.e. you have to be the 50th caller or the 100th caller with the correct answer to win the prize.
What we don’t know is how honest is the “house” (in this case not a casino, but the TV station) in determining the order of callers and making it a fair deal for everybody.
One should never forget that “in gambling rules, the house always wins”.
FAZIDA HANIM HASHIM,
Bangi, Selangor.
Source: The Star – January 24, 2008
3 responses to “Guess who’s the real winner in interactive game shows”
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Peter Yew
January 24th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
It is tempting to partake in such contests. After all, unlike the need to buy newspapers, cut out the contest forms, collect them and fill them one by one and mail them and wait for ages to know who is the winner, sms and other interactive contests are fast, easy and addictive, especially to boring kids with handphones that daddy pay the bills.
I guess the organizers have found a subtle and easy way to make money and yet get away from transparency and accountability. Guess how much the organizers of American Idols make by just encouraging fans to vote for their favorite singers? Using softwares and very little human power they rake in millions of dollars. I think local organizers are taking the cue to do the same. Sadly participants are lured by prizes that may just be on display and never won. Underlying such a culture is the philosophy that if I can win something with very little efforts (such as just a few finger presses) I should give it a go. Further underlying this is the thinking that ‘I don’t have to work to get what I want’ and it is a sad state of affair that one need not have to work to earn his just reward.
Parents need to educate their children to avoid such pitfalls. Regulatory authorities need to quickly restrict such contests that are of little or no social and cultural values but time wasting, money spending and creating a wrong mindset especially in our kids.
Boy
January 25th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Nothing wrong with the game shows.It’s just something wrong with audience.
Just Me
January 28th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Well, the game shows are not compulsory, are they? No one is forced to take part. Remember, they’re for-profit organisations, not charities. The same goes to those talent shows, as the result is based on who can get the most SMS votes, so anyone with enough dough to spend on the votes can create an artificial winner. SMS voters are not limited to 1 vote/phone number to make things fair.