Gaming the lottery was this couple's retirement plan

Comment #26

maximumfun — Wed, 18 Apr 2018 03:48:39 GMT

^^^ scary post

Comment #25

freeze22 — Tue, 17 Apr 2018 18:55:13 GMT

if you're interested in pulling something similar off send me a messsage

Comment #24

Soledad — Sat, 07 Apr 2018 01:41:07 GMT

This is actually a nice story. I read it before it was written here, but I must say it was not only interesting but nice to hear and see. Happy for them.

Comment #23

Smilei — Fri, 06 Apr 2018 21:45:02 GMT

That is breathtaking love the determination! Alot of patience that brought some big winners in family finance

Comment #22

Bleudog101 — Wed, 07 Mar 2018 21:01:36 GMT

Found the article very interesting and entertaining. Really had to chuckle with the part of them running the lottery machines themselves. Those old dot matrix machines in Massachusetts make a racket, think of all the decibels their poor ears had to endure. IGT said it is replacing them all; correct me if I'm wrong here. I understand that is the only state that is/was still using those old clunkers.

Comment #21

gunjack — Sun, 04 Mar 2018 03:18:10 GMT

nice story, way to many computer piicks, need something with less numbers to play

Comment #20

Stack47 — Sat, 03 Mar 2018 16:10:14 GMT

Maybe the flaw was intentional, to encourage players to spend lots of money on lottery tickets, since the state took a cut of each ticket sold, about 35 cents on the dollar.

Not much different than when more PB and MM tickets are sold as their jackpots gets higher and when state lotteries encourage players to buy a chance(s) to win $1/2 billion plus jackpots.

What if MM limited their jackpot at $200 million cash value with the excess money being rolled down to secondary prizes

Comment #19

gy65 — Sat, 03 Mar 2018 15:53:49 GMT

cliffnotes

Comment #18

GiveFive — Sat, 03 Mar 2018 13:48:31 GMT

It all nets down to coverage .

16,381,736 combinations is 6% of a possible 258,890,850 combinations that could be sold. So just 6% of the combo's were covered (sold) and 94% were left uncovered. (un-sold)

Not sure if you really meant tickets were sold or not. If it's the case that it really is tickets, then many more combo's were sold due to sales of tickets with multiple combo's (lines) on them. But even then the coverage percentage would still be low. It's when coverage gets to about 50... [ More ]

Comment #17

GiveFive — Sat, 03 Mar 2018 13:31:10 GMT

If you figured it out and you could do this, would you do it? Jerry asked.

Absolutely I would. Wish I was as astute as he is. Had I known about it, I know I'd have wanted to do it because The Massachusetts border is about an hour's drive from my home. The big problem I'd would have had would have been finding a retailer that would go along with it because I don't know anybody that's a lottery retailer in Mass.

One other thing; If I read the story correctly, The Selbee's and others were ap... [ More ]

Comment #16

kitab — Sat, 03 Mar 2018 10:13:13 GMT

Great article! Thanks for posting it. As for it incidentally showing how purchasing a huge number of tickets doesn't get you a jackpot even in a statistically easy game, check out lottoreport's ticket comparison page

16,381,736 tickets were sold for last night's Mega Million's draw. Nobody won obviously.

The article's point was that having a rolldown week drawing with no jackpot winner gave you a $1 ticket that statistically was worth more then $1.00. That was Jerry's Eureka moment. It's n... [ More ]

Comment #15

gatorsrok — Sat, 03 Mar 2018 02:36:02 GMT

I'm surprised that it worked out so well given that the large influx of ticket purchases during a roll-down would greatly increase the chances that someone hit the jackpot and thereby mess up the drawing for the gambling pools. Also, this tells you how hard it is to hit the jackpot given that they never actually hit the $2M or $5M jackpots despite buying insane numbers of tickets. The story does not indicate whether any of the other pools (e.g., MIT students) even hit the jackpot for a really bi... [ More ]

Comment #14

cashflow1 — Sat, 03 Mar 2018 01:57:26 GMT

WAAAAAAY too long to read!!!! Ill wait for the movie or audio book.

Comment #13

Artist77 — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 22:37:46 GMT

Well the lottery does not like people who game the system, even fairly. I see your point. Hopefully the amount of press will prevent that from happening. Ignore the trolls with a lot of free time on their hands.

Comment #12

KY Floyd — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 20:25:23 GMT

watch as they are illegally arrested for doing nothing wrong.

They haven't played the MA game for 6 years. It should be incredibly obvious that they're not going to be arrested, or even bothered. As for doing nothing wrong, did you read the article and understand it? They deliberately and knowingly violated the lottery's rules by printing tickets outside of the businesses' normal operation hours. Lucky for them that's just a violation of the retailer's contract rather than a crime, and it se... [ More ]

Comment #11

maximumfun — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 16:20:21 GMT

FABULOUS story. there were others than the 3 groups listed who also played the mass WinFall, but those 3 groups were serious about earning their share of the lottery winnings.

Hopefully they will find additional success now

Comment #10

BuyLow — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 16:08:54 GMT

Great story

Comment #9

s5thomps — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 12:28:29 GMT

Too much like a job to me! Just takes one ticket....The right one of course

Comment #8

Nikkicute — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 04:49:58 GMT

Wow, what an amazing story! Someone has got to make a tv movie about this!

They look hella good for being in their later age, keeping that brain busy must keep you young!

You know how many times I wanted to play and it was cold outside and I thought forget it .

They drove miles and miles to play, at on point across Canada as a short cut lol

Jerry and Marge were some serious players! This story is so motivating and goes on my Favorite list.

Comment #7

eddessaknight — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 03:38:17 GMT

I shall not commit the fashionable stupidity of regarding everything I cannot explain as a fraud.

Dr. C.J. Jung

The odds will deceive you, all is possible

Good Luck to them for using their minds to overcome the machine.

Comment #6

grwurston — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 02:02:03 GMT

Aren't we all trying to do the same thing, but in the Pick 3 and Pick 4?

That is, find that flaw in the game that we can use to win all the time.

Comment #5

ckrakowski — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 01:54:42 GMT

And now watch as they are illegally arrested for doing nothing wrong.

They need to sue the lottery.

Well the lottery just lost millions more.

Comment #4

realtorjim — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 01:07:27 GMT

A sad ending with an assumption that still holds true today in the lottery; they keep winning so they must be cheating . The reporter should have taken notice of what was actually happening, realized it was an opportunity and not an illegal operation, kept quiet and gotten a piece of the pie. Again, it was not only completely legal but being condoned by the lottery itself. But for some that ten minutes of fame, in this case a byline, overshadows all else.

Comment #3

Artist77 — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 00:48:04 GMT

Great story. I love people who have this level of intellectual curiosity and a can do attitude.

Comment #2

EZMONEE — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 00:47:42 GMT

lol same here but interesting story

Comment #1

CDanaT — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 00:09:32 GMT

stretching and yawning from nap between Part 4 5

OKAAAAAY..... was that a story or what ? .... lotta details in that tidbit...but informative..in the end.. good for them.....

Gaming the lottery was this couple's retirement plan

Lottery Post — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 23:10:13 GMT

Gerald Selbee broke the code of the American breakfast cereal industry because he was bored at work one day, because it was a fun mental challenge, because most things at his job were not fun and because he could because he happened to be the kind of person who saw puzzles all around him, puzzles that other people don't realize are puzzles: the little ciphers and patterns that float through the world and stick to the surfaces of everyday things.

This was back in 1966, when Jerry, as he is kno... [ More ]