Mass Effect 3: Space Edition winners in legal hot water

Two American gamers who were the lucky winners of EA’s Mass Effect 3: Space Edition contest have found themselves in a spot of legal bother.

Kotaku reports that video makers Michael Davis and Miguel Droz stumbled across a downed Mass Effect 3 weather balloon in the Arizona desert. Upon realising exactly what they had found, they decided to raffle the highly sought after title.

They intended to charge $5 a ticket, with 30 per cent of the proceeds going to games charity Child’s Play and the rest going into a fund with which they hoped to open a video games company.

However, unbeknownst to the pair, Nevada state law deems that lotteries are only legal if all money raised goes to charity.

Davis and Droz subsequently decided to abandon the raffle altogether and refund all monies through PayPal.

Meanwhile, in the UK EA yesterday launched two weather balloons into space. One landed in Beacon Wood near Dartford with a second coming to rest near Tonbridge, west of Maidstone.