Post by Morreion on Feb 11, 2012 13:52:37 GMT -5
Cracking the Scratch Lottery Code (Wired Magazine)
Is the apparent randomness of the scratch ticket just a facade, a mathematical lie?
A fascinating story by Wired-
The North American lottery system is a $70 billion-a-year business, an industry bigger than movie tickets, music, and porn combined. These tickets have a grand history: Lotteries were used to fund the American colonies and helped bankroll the young nation. In the 18th and 19th centuries, lotteries funded the expansion of Harvard and Yale and allowed the construction of railroads across the continent. Since 1964, when New Hampshire introduced the first modern state lottery, governments have come to rely on gaming revenue. (Forty-three states and every Canadian province currently run lotteries.) In some states, the lottery accounts for more than 5 percent of education funding.
A Canadian statistician figured out a simple system to beat the scratch-off lottery:
“I swear I’m not the kind of guy who hears voices,” Srivastava says. “But that night, as I passed the station, I heard a little voice coming from the back of my head. I’ll never forget what it said: ‘If you do it that way, if you use that algorithm, there will be a flaw. The game will be flawed. You will be able to crack the ticket. You will be able to plunder the lottery.’”
His discovery has caused lottery agencies to look closer at their scratch-off games, and statistics show that there are far more winners of certain tickets than is statistically probable. In other words, other people have probably figured out the system too, and it is even possible that organized crime has used the lottery to launder money. For example, the Massachusetts Lottery has a history of paying out lottery winnings to suspected criminals.
A great read!
Is the apparent randomness of the scratch ticket just a facade, a mathematical lie?
A fascinating story by Wired-
The North American lottery system is a $70 billion-a-year business, an industry bigger than movie tickets, music, and porn combined. These tickets have a grand history: Lotteries were used to fund the American colonies and helped bankroll the young nation. In the 18th and 19th centuries, lotteries funded the expansion of Harvard and Yale and allowed the construction of railroads across the continent. Since 1964, when New Hampshire introduced the first modern state lottery, governments have come to rely on gaming revenue. (Forty-three states and every Canadian province currently run lotteries.) In some states, the lottery accounts for more than 5 percent of education funding.
A Canadian statistician figured out a simple system to beat the scratch-off lottery:
“I swear I’m not the kind of guy who hears voices,” Srivastava says. “But that night, as I passed the station, I heard a little voice coming from the back of my head. I’ll never forget what it said: ‘If you do it that way, if you use that algorithm, there will be a flaw. The game will be flawed. You will be able to crack the ticket. You will be able to plunder the lottery.’”
His discovery has caused lottery agencies to look closer at their scratch-off games, and statistics show that there are far more winners of certain tickets than is statistically probable. In other words, other people have probably figured out the system too, and it is even possible that organized crime has used the lottery to launder money. For example, the Massachusetts Lottery has a history of paying out lottery winnings to suspected criminals.
A great read!
