Once upon a time, when I popped $0.80 into the vending machine, I got an ice-cold can of coke. Now, nothing costs $0.80 anymore and there are vending machines for stuff like freshly squeezed orange juice, fresh salads and even chilli crab. If you remember, there was recently a huge hoo-ha over mystery prize vending machines in Singapore. For the uninitiated, you basically pay $5 or $10 to get a mystery "prize" worth up to $1,234,567 or something. Obviously the authorities caught on and deemed the concept to be a scam form of public lottery, so now it is illegal.
