Statistician cracks secret code behind lottery tickets

Comment #39

DoctorEw220 — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 03:02:35 GMT

After reading this article, I don't think I'm nuts about something I've noticed here in PA anymore. On the $5 Crossword game (and quite possibly the $3 one), if any of the words on your crosswords has the letter Q in it, you win (or at least break even.). I don't think I've lost when I've had the letter Q in any of the words in the crosswords.

Comment #38

RJOh — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 02:01:28 GMT

It's not cheating if you're just smarter than the other players, besides any win is thrilling even if you have an advantage.

Comment #37

TheOtherOne — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 15:09:47 GMT

Actually the scratcher games for SC and TN are not that different (neither is GA).

So we would be interested in hearing some pointers you say you have discovered...besides, they probably arent as secret as you may think.

I grew up in SC and have family there still, so I go back fairly often while living in TN. I travel through GA so I have been able to compare many of the scratch offs.

Comment #36

chasingadream — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 14:58:13 GMT

I don't think it would be a good idea to share something like that........besides it takes away from the winning experience. Just play for chance like everyone else and don't cheat. Cheaters never get very far anyway.

Besides......the specifics for your state may be different than the ones I have noticed the pattern with........

Comment #35

CarHauler — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 07:18:22 GMT

Well I have no idea if you are serious or not, but if you think you really have, I would love to hear it. I am a scratcher person.

Comment #34

sully16 — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 03:29:34 GMT

LOL Makes me scratch my head, He cracked the code for 3 dollars, at least magathing got 7 dollars.

Comment #33

butterflykt — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 14:53:57 GMT

I agree with you

Comment #32

chasingadream — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 17:15:57 GMT

This is old news. I discovered the code on scratchers a few years ago when I was working in a gas station in South Carolina. I still don't play them though.... I'm not a scratcher person.

Comment #31

sully16 — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 13:55:02 GMT

good point, I wouldn't buy a loose scratcher from a clerk, I would but one from a vending machine.

Comment #30

dr65 — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 07:29:29 GMT

That was one long story. If he was a trash man and made that discovery, would anyone listen or care? Or would they be laughing and tell the other

side of the story which is - to do what this guy is suggesting can be done (although he did change his mind and kept his job) a person would

have to have access to books and books of tickets, time to study them, time to choose which they were going to buy and then scratch them off to

win $10 at a time? They would also need the time to travel t... [ More ]

Comment #29

RJOh — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 06:43:39 GMT

I sure similar statistics could be found about drug users, drunks and smokers. Dysfunctional people participates in lots of activities to excess.

Comment #28

bula bula — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 18:14:13 GMT

it happen 2 mehere in jersey city they played ajoke on me and i almost had a heart attack...........

Comment #27

LOTTOMIKE — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 17:49:13 GMT

really enjoy stories like this.i think a lot of us feel if we had a certain amount of time and resources we could crack the code.

Comment #26

play4shekels — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 13:23:15 GMT

If you haven't noticed, the state lotteries are now utilizing the science of color to make the panels more difficult to play to those with even slight vision impairments, especially the 50 and over crowd whose vision is beginning to naturally deteriorate. By color science, I mean the strategic placement of adjacent colors on the panels that send a confusing message to the brain (it has been proven that staring at certain shades of red and blue alternating rapidly in a strobe-like effect can quic... [ More ]

Comment #25

ttech10 — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 10:51:45 GMT

I think the part about high school dropouts can be mis-interpreted. It's not like they dropped out because they thought they'd win the lottery, but I think it's simply people who dropped out of high school (whatever the reason) simply see the lottery as their only chance at being wealthy (and in my experience of people I knew who dropped out of high school, that's probably true as most had issues with drugs, gangs or other criminal activity).

I also find it ironic that in playing the lot... [ More ]

Comment #24

jimmy4164 — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 03:52:07 GMT

There is a sad reality reported in this story too:

While approximately half of Americans buy at least one lottery ticket at some point, the vast majority of tickets are purchased by about 20 percent of the population. These high-frequency players tend to be poor and uneducated, which is why critics refer to lotteries as a regressive tax. (In a 2006 survey, 30 percent of people without a high school degree said that playing the lottery was a wealth-building strategy.) On average, households t... [ More ]

Comment #23

James1 — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 02:57:22 GMT

Most of the money laundering occurs when criminals purchase tickets that have already won and claim them themselves. There is no guarantee you will hit P3 or P4

Comment #22

Littleoldlady — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 02:53:56 GMT

They can think that all of those folks who play scratchers are dumb if they want to. I know people who actually study those things and WIN most of the time. They don't play numbers and they don't play the scratchers everyday. I tried once to see how a couple was doing it but they tend to keep that information very, very secret. They used to do the same thing with pull tabs. The people who make these games are making a big mistake..just because you are poor, that does not mean you are stupid.... [ More ]

Comment #21

James1 — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 02:22:30 GMT

The story was an interesting read but I would not call it cracking the lottery. A number or letter can appear more then once and still win. However it does increase your chance of winning. That is what all us players look for right ?

Cracking the algorithm code on the serial numbers is the only real way to crack the lottery. Finding out where the big winners are located is the most important factor of all.

Comment #20

James1 — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 02:17:33 GMT

What you are talking about is poaching for tickets. Its one of the few successful strategies in playing scratch offs were a person observes another buy several losing tickets in a row and then swoop in and buy 1 or 2 themselves with an increased chance of winning. I have done this once and I hit 2 for 2 and got a $70 profit in 5 minuets.

Comment #19

CarHauler — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 02:10:50 GMT

No they couldn't buy them out of order, but they could buy all of the tickets to get at them, assuming they thought it was a big enough winner. My favorite game used to be a scratch off named Holiday Gifts. I started keeping detailed statistics about every ticket from every roll that I purchased. For the longest time, I was making a consistent profit, and buying winners at the rate of 1 out of every 2 tickets I bought at that store.

It was a relatively slow store, and I simply let other custo... [ More ]

Comment #18

HaveABall — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 01:30:48 GMT

Well, it's great that Srivastavia's consulting business earns him more than $200K per year annually!

Isn't it a shame that even after all his work, he still couldn't get the Ontario Lottery's Security Division to hire him on as another of their high-paid outside consultants

Comment #17

time*treat — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 01:16:31 GMT

The ability to look at the THEIR NUMBERS side of a ticket and predict with high accuracy whether or not there will be a prize won on the YOUR NUMBERS side may make for a neat party trick (so does knowing all the words to We Didn't Start the Fire or It's the End of the World as We Know It) but it's not something that can be done BEFORE a ticket is purchased (i.e. before your money is spent).

I can look at the drawing results and tell you how you should have marked your playslip.... [ More ]

Comment #16

wish626 — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 01:03:01 GMT

It looks like this would only work with extended play Bingo type tickets, there would have to be info on the ticket before scratching.

Then you would have to have time to sit there and analyze the ticket. I don't see anyone with that kind of time or clerks letting people behind the counter to stand there and look at tickets. Also, can't buy tickets out of numerical order or return unscratched tickets that I have ever seen, so nice story but nothing that seems like it would help me win more.... [ More ]

Comment #15

GiveFive — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 00:52:52 GMT

To me, this is just another reason not to buy scratch off's.

I'm in New York, and I've never seen anyone get to pick which individual scratch off ticket they want to buy. Scratch-off tickets are in a clear plastic display case and the clerk simply tears off the next available ticket and hands it to the customer. Retailers buying back unscratched tickets? Not saying it cant happen, but I've never seen it.

All of that said, I'm sure the guy featured in the article did expose the flaw. But h... [ More ]

Comment #14

ttech10 — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 00:11:16 GMT

I'll read the article later as it's rather long, but from the pictures it looks like you'd have to not only buy but also scratch off half the ticket in order to see if you've won or not... so how is this cracking a code ? I could see it as that if it allowed you to figure out a ticket was a winner without having to scratch anything, but not when it's something like the pictures suggest.

Comment #13

gy65 — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 23:26:36 GMT

Then there is the less complicated embezzlement strategy.

Comment #12

Guru101 — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 22:26:08 GMT

You can't buy tickets out of sequence here. Also, in Indiana, store owners and employees are not allowed to purchase tickets from their place of employment. They have to go to another store.

Comment #11

time*treat — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 21:49:00 GMT

The stores around here sell scratchers right off the roll from clear plastic display cases. ALL of the YOURS and THEIRS numbers on the ticket are covered, and I've never seen anyone try to buy tickets out of sequence.

Best line:

Srivastava: People often assume that I must be some extremely moral person ... I can assure you that that's not the case.

That's what you want to hear from a statistician. He has a future career in calculating gov't CPI numbers.

Comment #10

RL-RANDOMLOGIC — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 21:08:54 GMT

Random does not exist, it just seems like random when we don't know all the details. I think I heard

this somewhere before.

RL

Comment #9

Stack47 — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 21:03:41 GMT

Many state lotteries are using vending machines and maybe because they knew that problem existed. They may have instructed their retailer not to buy back unscratched tickets too.

The scandal would be acknowledging their games were flawed and this way they could quietly go about their business as if it never happened.

Comment #8

Stack47 — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 20:56:21 GMT

A store owner or a clerk would have access to the tickets and remove what they believed to be the winning tickets and sell the rest. They would know amount of the prize and wouldn't buy the free tickets or tickets that paid off in equal value and sell them to customers. If their method had a 60% accuracy rate, they would make a nice profit.

And even if they were smart enough to spot such a flaw in the design of the tickets, they would probably (as he suggests) have a more profitable way of m... [ More ]

Comment #7

sully16 — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 20:52:08 GMT

I agree, I can only wonder what kind of turmoil will be created as people go to buy scratchers, when this gets around , and it will ,we know now.

Comment #6

sensfan — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 20:04:04 GMT

Retailers here have trays where they rip tickets from the roll and put on display for sales so the customer picks what ever ticket he wants.

So the customer never sees the roll.

Comment #5

Jon D — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 20:03:29 GMT

I never liked those scratch games with the exposed elements, these extended play games like crossword, bingo and tic-tac-toe.

Mainly because it took too snip long to figure out if you won! And that translucent blue covering over the letters was sticky and messy, unlike the dry scratch off for regular scratch games that brushes away. Played them couple of times and then never again.

Now with this report, I have one more reason to hate those types of scratch-off games, the higher potential f... [ More ]

Comment #4

waltoy — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 19:53:18 GMT

I'm going to play until i get mine and i know i will get mine soon, and very soon,cant wait

Comment #3

spaconbe2 — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 19:45:17 GMT

I have lost everything i got on the lottery. I know I'm gonna get them oneday. The lottery is a rippoff pplz. I regret that played

Comment #2

Harve$t Moon — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 19:44:51 GMT

...the lottery corporation needs to control the number of winning tickets. The game can't be truly random. Instead, it has to generate the illusion of randomness while actually being carefully determined.

The system is slowing unraveling, but the industry is here to stay! It will just get more clever.

Comment #1

RJOh — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 19:42:51 GMT

Even if someone figured out which tickets in a roll were more likely to be winners, they couldn't buy them out of the middle of a row of tickets unless they were a clerk or store manager selling them and waiting for the winners to come. And even if they were smart enough to spot such a flaw in the design of the tickets, they would probably (as he suggests) have a more profitable way of making a living.

Statistician cracks secret code behind lottery tickets

Lottery Post — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 18:40:22 GMT

Is the apparent randomness of the scratch ticket just a facade, a mathematical lie?

The call came around 3 a.m. Toronto time, which was midnight in Nevada where Doug Hartzell was sleeping. It was his old friend, Mohan Srivastava, phoning from Canada.

He called me and said, 'Man, I think I'm losing it. But I see a pattern in scratch lottery tickets,' said Hartzell, recalling that 2003 conversation.

My reaction almost instantly was like: I'm sure he's right.

Over their three decades... [ More ]