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Ex-lottery worker who rigged winnings gets 25 years in prison

money.cnn.com

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Re: Ex-lottery worker who rigged winnings gets 25 years in prison

#51

Post by Phlarp »

upofadown wrote: post #30

Anyone know why these lotteries stopped using the traditional bingo ball machines in favour of a black box?

I think this is a really worthwhile question. Is there some inherent flaw with the randomness of the older style bingo ball machines? Surely the upkeep and maintenance of a few ball tumbling machines is far cheaper than software developers and datacenter costs. Even the fancier air driven ball bouncing designs seem massively less complex and easier to manage long term than a software solution.

Re: Ex-lottery worker who rigged winnings gets 25 years in prison

#53

Post by ransom1538 »

Ok. Do these guys that commit white collar crime not know how a passport works? If you have millions of dollars stashed in bank accounts WHY are you in the US? Why are you buying estates and testing out a new bmwI8 and spilling champagne all over? Why not get on a plane go to Morocco (a country with an extremely complex extradition process)? wtf. Even the guy running silk road was hanging out in SF now lives in a 4x6 concrete cube - instead why not hang out with Edward Snowden in a Russian bar or whatever.

This guy for example the FBI calls just to chat. They can't touch him.

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/11/felon_share...

Re: Ex-lottery worker who rigged winnings gets 25 years in prison

#54

Post by tyingq »

nothrabannosir wrote: post #20
rdtsc wrote: post #7

> "It's difficult even saying that with all the people that I know behind me that I hurt." It is interesting to think about who he considers he hurt. The potential winners who relied on lottery winning to secure a future for their families? The lottery workers? He is a criminal surely, but isn't the whole lottery system a tax on lack of education and it just gives false hope to people and encourages gambling. He redu…

> isn't the whole lottery system a tax on lack of education If anything, it's a tax on intensity of endorphin rushes. Aside from people who buy them for "fair" reasons, like... the "joke" factor, for example.

Agreed. There are plenty of highly educated people in casinos, or in very risky investments.

Re: Ex-lottery worker who rigged winnings gets 25 years in prison

#55

Post by 0xfeba »

bluGill wrote: post #45
lazerpants wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a thought exercise, what do you think the minimum distance between the cheater and the payout would need to be in order to avoid detection?

High enough that you can't fully trust the guy getting the payout to share. If someone you just vaguely know made you an offer to get this payout would you accept it or turn them in? Most of us reading this make enough money that we can afford to be honest in cases like this, so it is a moral question only - are you really dishonest enough to cheat?

Yeah I'd accept that, without much hesitation.

Re: Ex-lottery worker who rigged winnings gets 25 years in prison

#56

Post by SirFatty »

derekp7 wrote: post #14
SirFatty wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lotto in Illinois was introduced as a way to help pay for public education. You can guess how that ended up... hell, they were not even paying the winners for a while (maybe they still are not).

The lottery does pay for education. And the pre-existing education funds were removed. Net gain in funding: 0.

Correct, here's a pretty good explanation. It's crazy really.

https://www.wbez.org/shows/curious-city/why-the-illinois-lot...

Re: Ex-lottery worker who rigged winnings gets 25 years in prison

#57

Post by creaghpatr »

booleandilemma wrote: post #27
Isamu wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a tax on lack of education I hear this a lot, but I think people know what a longshot is. Is this so much more stupid than throwing your money away on useless consumer junk?

I once read the lottery is a way of buying hope.

In Georgia the lottery-funded state school near-full scholarship is called HOPE.

Re: Ex-lottery worker who rigged winnings gets 25 years in prison

#58

Post by arcanus »

ransom1538 wrote: post #53

Ok. Do these guys that commit white collar crime not know how a passport works? If you have millions of dollars stashed in bank accounts WHY are you in the US? Why are you buying estates and testing out a new bmwI8 and spilling champagne all over? Why not get on a plane go to Morocco (a country with an extremely complex extradition process)? wtf. Even the guy running silk road was hanging out in SF now lives in a 4x6…

I've also always wondered this. But people seldom run.

I think Snowden had seen enough of the sausage being made to realize that hiding in the USA was impossible, given the security apparatus' capabilities.

Re: Ex-lottery worker who rigged winnings gets 25 years in prison

#59

Post by smeyer »

vertex-four wrote: post #46
hamandcheese wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most the people I see buying lottery tickets are in no position to throw money away on anything .

Ehh. A $1/week expense which buys you hope and dreams for a week isn't that bad in the grand scheme of things. It's certainly cheaper than cigarettes, alcohol, or drugs to temporarily take the stress out of the fact that you're in a long-term shitty situation with little way out of it. This concept that the poor should only ever work, eat, and sleep, and any attempt to look after their mental health is wasting money,…

> Ehh. A $1/week expense which buys you hope and dreams for a week isn't that bad in the grand scheme of things

There's a demographic of lottery players that really only are spending $1 a week (or even $1 every few months or whatever), but there is also a large demographic that is regularly buying multiple $20 scratch tickets on a regular basis, which tends to be more of what people are thinking of when they evoke the stereotype of someone who "can't afford" to play the lottery.

I'm not saying that only the rich should be allowed to enjoy myself, but if a friend asked me to get their finances in order and was spending multiple percent of their salary on lottery tickets (which is a real phenomenon), cutting back would be my first suggestion.

Re: Ex-lottery worker who rigged winnings gets 25 years in prison

#60

Post by froindt »

vertex-four wrote: post #46
hamandcheese wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most the people I see buying lottery tickets are in no position to throw money away on anything .

Ehh. A $1/week expense which buys you hope and dreams for a week isn't that bad in the grand scheme of things. It's certainly cheaper than cigarettes, alcohol, or drugs to temporarily take the stress out of the fact that you're in a long-term shitty situation with little way out of it. This concept that the poor should only ever work, eat, and sleep, and any attempt to look after their mental health is wasting money,…

> Ehh. A $1/week expense which buys you hope and dreams for a week isn't that bad in the grand scheme of things.

The problem is that poor people aren't just dropping 1 dollar per week. They're spending much more. Some people have a very poor grasp of how bad the odds are and mention that playing the lottery is their way to retirement.

Taking a convenient top link from a Google search (admittedly it references a study from 2008), they mention households earning 13k annually spending 645 (9% of income) on the lottery.

www.aol.com/amp/2010/05/31/poor-people-spend-9-of-income-on-lottery-tickets-heres-why/

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