Original Post by four4me

"If such a system were found we would have heard about it by now."

You "hear about it" in the form of matrix changes and games being dropped.

Just like in the casinos where they have changed the rules over the years and ban people not necessarily for cheating, the lotteries have changed the games, too.

^{_{Modern "education" teaches a version of history so fictionalized, it should be followed by "TM"}
They're warning me about Osama or whatever. Picture me buying the scam; I say "never!".}

I've heard casinos consider it almost criminal for anyone to devise ways of beating their games even if no laws are broken and are not hesitant to band them from their establishment.   I don't think any state would go that far even if they suspected someone was regularly beating the odds of one of its game and it probably wouldn't discuss it publicly, it would just change or replace the game.

The other thing about patents is that you can only get one for something that can be patented, and you can't patent a  mathematical formula. They could write about it and get a copyright (only on that specific written work), but that wouldn't prevent other people from writing about it and selling (or simply giving away) a competing work.

@RJOh - One of the most intelligent statements I've read on this board regarding systems. 

Although I don't believe there is any type of proven system, I agree with you.  So, knowing that a game would surely be discontinued, changed or investigated if you really had a winning system, why would anyone go public with it?  (obviously for profit or maybe some ego stroking)

Let's say I came up with a system and began winning regularly.  Even if I won a few jackpot games in a short time and the Lottery became suspicious, the burden would be on the Lottery (not me) to prove it.  I would just say "I got lucky" or "I'm using birthdays and anniversaries."  (or license plates I see on the interstate!  LOL)   How would they prove otherwise? 

If you do a search on MIT blackjack team, you'll get a good feel of the lengths the casinos have gone to.

There's even a documentary about it.

^{_{Modern "education" teaches a version of history so fictionalized, it should be followed by "TM"}
They're warning me about Osama or whatever. Picture me buying the scam; I say "never!".}

With our jackpot games, we can only put 5 combinations on one play slip so when I was playing a 20 combination wheel, I had to fill out four. Most clerks don't check the tickets to see if they ran the same play slip twice and missed one of them so I made sure that lowest number on the first combination on each play slip was different and it was easy for me to check the tickets.

At the bottom of the pick-3 and pick-4 play slips there is box with the number of times we want to play the ticket and we can play the same combination multiple times. A clerk probably notices the combinations but even if they played them, there would be no affect on the player's winnings. Many people play the same combination multiple times and the clerks can't play them all.

In the higher jackpot games it might raise an eyebrow if somebody played the same combo multiple times, but the wife said she had been playing the same numbers for years and would mean nothing to a clerk if that was her usual bet. If they had played the same combinations on four play slips and played at one store, the Adamsons could have saved time and gas by doing that instead of going to four different stores every drawing for many years.

Stack,

Remember the guy that played one Buckeye5 combination twenty times every drawing?  Everything was fine until he matched 5 and learned that Ohio paid $100K for each winning ticket up to a maximum of $1M and then all winning tickets shared the $1M.

There was another winning ticket and he only got 20/21 of $1M instead of the $2M he thought he deserved.  He sued the state and the retailer claiming the disclaimer on the back of the play slip was never point out to him to read.  He lost the case.

It looks like October 2005 was when the matrix changed to 6/39.

For all we know, there could be a MIT lottery team operating now.  With jackpots of $50M+, I certainly wouldn't be surprised to hear it has at least been considered.  When lottery jackpots are claimed by a trust, we have no idea who the winners are.

In Blackjack there are 52 cards and someone with a great memory can figure out what's left in the deck.  Each time a card is dealt, that card is eliminated from future picks.  Not so with the lottery. Each game has the same odds as the previous one.  The casinos kept adding decks to keep people who mastered the system from beating the house and to make it more difficult to count the cards as they were dealt. 

There was a book written about the MIT Blackjack team.  However, I doubt if anyone at MIT would create a lottery team since it's random & not a science.   Blackjack isn't random.  The more decks in the sleeve, the more unlikely a player can count the cards and/or predict what will come next, but it's still possible.  However, let's say there are as many as 6 decks being used.  24 aces have been dealt, so you know there are no more aces left.  But after a lottery drawing, all the balls are put back into play!  How can anyone say determining the picks for these 2 games is similar? 

One other thing everyone keeps missing is the fact that there are pre-tests.   A Florida spokesperson recently commented that they have 6 pre-tests before a drawing.  So how can someone base a system on past drawings without knowing the results? 

Adding decks to blackjack games doesn't make it any more difficult to count the cards, it just reduces the percentage you can gain over the house by knowing what is left in the deck.  Mainly, because the casinos use 8 deck shoes now and re-shuffle after 6 have been played (leaving 2 decks not used).  Since you have an edge (while counting cards) when the number of cards in the shoe is lessened, this hurts the maximum edge the players can gain. Besides that, in order to make any money you have to varry your bet large amounts.  You play the table minimum until the count is in your favor, then raise your bet 10-15 times what it previously was.  Now casinos take note of any player varrying their bet more than 8 tmies the initial amount, this tells them you are a potential card counter (if it repeats for a while).  The MIT team used a number of players all working together, good plan they had there.  The book is "Bringing Down the House", definitely a much better read than the movie they turned it into.  Lots of interesting info in the book as well.

Adding decks to blackjack games doesn't make it any more difficult to count the cards, it just reduces the percentage you can gain over the house by knowing what is left in the deck. 

Isn't that what counting cards is all about?

You play the table minimum until the count is in your favor, then raise your bet 10-15 times what it previously was. 

Where the heck did you learn this?  I think some casino managers made it up and started spreading the news around Vegas so all the tourists would lose their vacation money.  It's the easiest way to go broke!  What if you get 15 or 20 losing hands and you keep doubling your bet? Not likely, but definitely possible.  I suppose if you had a lot of money to lose, you could eventually win it back, but don't most casinos have maximum bets?

"One other thing everyone keeps missing is the fact that there arepre-tests.   A Florida spokesperson recently commented that they have 6pre-tests before a drawing.  So how can someone base a system onpast drawings without knowing the results?

1) Not everyone lives in Florida.

2) Not everyone uses the same kind of system.

How can one predict the overall path of a hurricane without knowing the vector and temperature of every molecule?

^{_{Modern "education" teaches a version of history so fictionalized, it should be followed by "TM"}
They're warning me about Osama or whatever. Picture me buying the scam; I say "never!".}

@ time*treat

Meteorology is a science - not always an exact science - but it's still based on atmospheric physics.   I took a course on meteorology & physics but I don't ever remember hearing about a course on playing the lottery.  Maybe your college had a different curriculum. 

Judging from the traffic, I thought everyone DID live in Florida!  lol

Seriously, what states do not have pre-tests before a drawing?  Do you know? 

@Stew - my bad.   I probably shouldn't have mentioned the MIT students in the first place.  A review in the Boston Globe says that most of the story was fabricated, even some of the characters.  MIT students who were interviewed confirm that the book was written to make money off of the "Reality Show" junkies who will believe anything if someone writes it or it's on TV.