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There's a Loophole in HQ Trivia That's Keeping Winners From Getting Their Money

Published: Jan 04, 2018 2 min read
A group of friends playing HQ Trivia
The hundreds of thousands of people regularly playing HQ Trivia are trying to increase their odds of winning the big prize.
franckreporter—Getty Images

Fans of HQ Trivia, you many want to sit down for this.

It turns out there's a loophole in the wildly popular app-based game that's preventing some of the game's winners from actually taking home their earnings.

This means HQ winner Lauren May, whose emotional reaction to winning $11.30 went viral this week, needs to win again to actually claim her prize—not an easy thing to do.

The game has drawn as many as 750,000 participants, all competing for a piece of a cash jackpot. Yet HQ splits each prize (currently offered twice daily) among everyone who correctly answers all 12 of the game's questions—and it doesn't pay out the prize money if a winner has pocketed less than $20, in total.

That leaves some HQ players (sometimes referred to as “HQties” by the app’s charming part-time host, Scott Rogowsky) coming up short.

HQ does spell out the $20 minimum cash-out in two places: both in its terms and conditions and under the game’s FAQs.

Representatives from HQ Trivia have not responded to multiple requests for an explanation of the policy. But the $20 minimum doesn't appear to originate with PayPal, which does not require the third-party apps that use its service to clear any minimum payments, company spokesman Josh Criscoe told Money.