Wednesday, August 08, 2012

Cash WinFall




So this nerdy pimple faced kid says, "Sell your Alcoa and Phillip Morris; give me the cash and I'll invest it in lottery tickets."
Sounded Legit

 

Res Ipsa Loquitor

The game’s vulnerability became clear in 2010, Sullivan said, when the MIT group figured out a way to win nearly the entire jackpot for a single drawing, something lottery officials had erroneously concluded was impossible.

The MIT group figured out that, if it bought enough tickets, it could push the jackpot to $2 million and trigger the rolldown all by itself.

In August 2010, the group began quietly buying up enough tickets to force a rolldown. The lottery remained silent as the MIT group stockpiled 700,000 tickets and did not alert the public that a rolldown week was about to happen, as it normally does. The MIT group bought more than 80 percent of the tickets during the August 2010 rolldown, Sullivan found, and ultimately cashed in 860 of 983 winning tickets of $600 or more. [Cash WinFall]

I coulda been a contender!

4 comments:

Kristophr said...

This ain't the first time mathematicians have buggered a lotto.

Voltaire taught the French lotto officials some math once ...

Anonymous said...

The story is not about those who hacked the lottery. The story is about the complicity of the state officials who kept it all alive because they were still getting their cut. You thought the state ran an honest game?

Casca

Anonymous said...

"...the integrity of the lottery is of paramount importance.'
Yeah, let's concentrate on fleecing the welfare recipients who can't really afford to gamble, and would get better odds at Atlantic City or Vegas.
Lt. Col. Gen. Tailgunner dick

DougM said...

Usetabee that the lottery was taxation for people who were bad at math.
Reckon that's changed.

Post a Comment

Just type your name and post as anonymous if you don't have a Blogger profile.