Local News

Kuwaiti invents card game simulating elections

Published Date: June 21, 2009

KUWAIT: A Kuwaiti national has invented a card game simulating political elections. The game can be played by two to five players whose aim is to collect votes in the form of cards carrying different denominations. In this came, dubbed the "Ballot Box," players are allowed to exchange cards in order to collect the largest number of votes during the ballot count, but only one exchange can be made in a single round.

Cards carry 10, 15, 20, 25, 50, 75, 100, 150 or 200 votes. Each player is handed nine cards at the beginning of the game. The player holding the tally card cannot call for the end of the game.

Mohammad Al-Shanfa, who invented the game, said that it took him six months to put together the game and to think through all possible scenarios of playing the cards, and then writing an instructions sheet. The card game has been registered at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, as well as the US Patent and Trademark Office through the Scientific Club.

The manufacturing of the game began three months ago, and coincided with the parliamentary elections in Kuwait, he said, adding that it had proved greatly popular among Kuwaitis, especially youth, and thus he sought out a Chinese factory to provide the required quantities.

Al-Shanfa hoped that the game would spread from the local market to the rest of the Gulf states in the coming period, adding that he had signed a contract with a company in Egypt to market the card game there. Moreover, he noted that the game won the bronze medal at the inventor's exhibition that was held in China and in which 2,500 inventions competed, while hoping that a second version of the game, out soon, would be just as successful as the first.

Chairman of the Scientific Club, Eyad Al-Kharafi, expressed in a statement to KUNA the club's pride at such achievements on the part of Kuwaiti inventors. He said that the idea of establishing an inventor's bureau at the Scientific Club ten years ago was aimed at providing a channel for inventors to address the society and make their work known to the world. The bureau also helps inventors register patents. - KUNA