How a group of MIT students gamed the Massachusetts Lottery

Comment #14

LiveInGreenBay — Thu, 31 Mar 2016 19:29:56 GMT

Am I missing something here? If its a random drawing, how can they design a game to pay-out $1.20 of every $2.00 played

Comment #13

sully16 — Thu, 31 Mar 2016 18:56:44 GMT

That's for sure.

Comment #12

DELotteryPlyr — Thu, 31 Mar 2016 17:37:34 GMT

yea that sounds about right but then it make me think of the phrase - Luv what you do and you are never working

Comment #11

SWMcCaig — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 11:30:23 GMT

Comment #10

TheGameGrl — Fri, 04 Mar 2016 05:18:45 GMT

What ever definition you have of ethical is inaccurate in this opinion expressed.

Fact:Adults played the lottery . Unethical for them to play? Nope!

Fact:Educated in math, unethical to play? Nope again.

They had financial resource . again unethical to play when you have money? Nope! Pretty sure so long as you can buy a ticket and are of gaming age, you are not doing anything unethical.

Please tell me you aren't basing this that low Iq or only minimum wage persons are the only ones t... [ More ]

Comment #9

OneTrickpony — Sat, 27 Feb 2016 12:33:20 GMT

Ya know, lotteries are mainly played by blue-collar, lower and lower-middle class people who spend their hard earned dollars to buy a $2 dream of a better life for themselves and their families. To have a privileged, college-educated (and not just a community college, but MIT), profit-mongering, soul-less entity swoop in and take what is rightfully 'for the people' is just wrong.

Is it legal? Yes. Is it ethical? I don't think so. Do they even care what we think? Absolutely couldn't give two... [ More ]

Comment #8

myturn — Thu, 25 Feb 2016 00:23:23 GMT

I don't have a mathematics degree, but a $100 a year isn't going to make me or break me. I play the Massachusetts Lottery's Megabucks Doubler game, which is only $100 a year, two draws a week. It is the only game available across the country by subscription, you don't have to reside in Massachusetts.

I haven't won any big prizes yet, but several little ones. It raises additional revenue for communities across Massachusetts, which is the reason for lotteries. We all benefit from the revenue ra... [ More ]

Comment #7

Igamble — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 02:37:24 GMT

they calculated the odds but not sure their time spent vs profit was profitable for an MIT person.

I would have labeled tickets by special filters in sep. automatic boxes amazon warehouse style +all done in excell...maybe robots would take less then an hour to find all 3,4,5 tiks winners. This guys they payed themselves 2 work basically.

Comment #6

realtorjim — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 02:19:57 GMT

Groppo,

The story was about how MIT students legally manipulated the Mass. lottery to repeatedly win. However, about three fourths of the way down the story they provided a link for readers to click on. If you were one of the first 100 people to click on the link they provided you with their newest BETA MIT formula to beat and win the Powerball lottery! I clicked and was #100!!! I can't wait to receive this material since they constantly won in the Mass. lottery. It's a sure bet I'll clean up... [ More ]

Comment #5

winoneday — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 00:20:45 GMT

I wondered what Groppo means, so I looked it up in the dictionary. I was not surprised to see it means lazy .

Comment #4

RJOh — Tue, 23 Feb 2016 19:40:55 GMT

If you can't spend the time to read the story then it would be a waste of time trying to explain it to you.

This game was well covered in earlier news threads and as I understood it, it was a syndicate ran by a couple from Michigan that took over a couple of retail stores and spent over $300K on tickets each roll down that actually caused the state to end the game.

Comment #3

dallascowboyfan — Tue, 23 Feb 2016 19:00:40 GMT

But after a draw, he and his wife would have to work for 10 hours a day examining their collection of tickets to identify the profitable ones Wow that's crazy that would give me a headache

Comment #2

Groppo — Tue, 23 Feb 2016 18:40:35 GMT

Could you, or anyone, please tell me what the gist of the story was?

I can't read the whole article. It truly is too long for me.

I had read about half, and couldn't read anymore.

What I got out of it was that there was this lotto game in Mass. and it turned out to be quite profitable. Then, one day, a few students from MIT pooled their money together for a total of a grand, in this pool. The Winfall game actually became a profitable lottery game to play, because of the distribution, wh... [ More ]

Comment #1

Raven62 — Tue, 23 Feb 2016 18:22:22 GMT

Who said Winning the Lottery wasn't Hard Work

How a group of MIT students gamed the Massachusetts Lottery

Lottery Post — Tue, 23 Feb 2016 18:11:41 GMT

Even within a university as famously offbeat as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Random Hall has a reputation for being a little quirky. According to campus legend, the students who first lived there in 1968 wanted to call the dorm Random House until the publishing house with that same name sent them a letter to object. The individual floors have names, too. One is called Destiny, a result of its cash-strapped inhabitants selling the naming rights on eBay; the winning bid was $36 from