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

money.cnn.com

131–140 of 261 posts

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

#131
post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Against a Madoff perhaps, yes. But the point is rather that the FBI probably doesn't need to respect the rules outside of the US.

> But the point is rather that the FBI probably doesn't need to respect the rules outside of the US. That's not how this works, that's not how any of this works. They don't operate at all outside the US. :)

Say what? The FBI definitely operates outside the US.

https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/legal-attache-offices

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

#132
post #66

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…

> Why not get on a plane go to Morocco (a country with an extremely complex extradition process)? Why don't people in poor countries just move to better countries? Why do people stay in the rust belt instead of moving to the coast? Why do people on the coast whine about rent instead of moving inland? Leaving everything you know is hard. To quote a famous quote > I always wonder why birds choose to stay in the same pl…

Not really a good analogy as the limiting factor in your scenarios is often money

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

#133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good luck. It's pretty difficult with the various capital controls in place to get lots of money out of the US without attracting attention. The Governor of NY was run out of office and nearly prosecuted when some bank compliance officer when transferring a few thousand bucks to a escort service.

> Good luck. It's pretty difficult with the various capital controls in place to get lots of money out of the US without attracting attention. No it isn't, buy Bitcoin, store coin in brain wallet, walk across any border.

Sure, but then you've changed the game into finding a way to purchase that much Bitcoin and also find a way to liquidate that much Bitcoin once you realize that few merchants accept it.

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

#134
post #118
post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Against a Madoff perhaps, yes. But the point is rather that the FBI probably doesn't need to respect the rules outside of the US.

The FBI don't operate outside the US. It would be the CIA if anyone.

The FBI does operate overseas: https://www.fbi.gov/about/leadership-and-structure/internati...

Here's an article on using the FBI as more or less another branch of special forces: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/insid...

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

#135
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Although the expected value is still minuscule, it's an unquantifiable improvement (since we can't divide by zero). This isn't how it works, because the expected value, in monetary terms, is negative once you factor in the cost of the tickets. Statistically, it is a quantifiable unimprovement. That said, lots of activities have negative expected monetary value, like going to the movies, or going bowling. And it is…

> Statistically, it is a quantifiable unimprovement. What's the probability that someone on SSI will be a millionaire before they die? What's the probability that someone will become a millionaire by playing the lottery? Which is a larger probability? It's possible that many people aren't as dumb as we think.

Could I interest you in a bridge?

Probability being on SSI makes you a millionaire: 0%

Probability playing the lottery makes you a millionaire: Very close to 0%.

Probability being on SSI makes you poorer: 0%

Probability playing the lottery makes you poorer: Very close to 100%.

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

#136
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?

>but I think people know what a longshot is. Gambling addiction and various mega-jackpot ticket-purchasing fervors are an indication that many people can't really comprehend the odds. A human can easily visualize 1 (the number of jackpot winners), but less so the scale of the 292,201,337 chances you have to lose (Powerball odds) If you had a contest where you asked someone to pay $5 to correctly choose a single grain…

I think this is broadly correct. Your system 1 (in Kahneman terms) can tell the difference between 50/50 and 1/10 but something like 1 in 1000 in is put in the same bucket as 1 in 100,000,000 -- unlikely but not impossible. If you want to actually work with odds like that you need to use system 2 to compute something more tractable like EV (~$0.75 on a $2 ticket for tonight's drawing).

In the interest of full disclosure, I probably spent $30 on lotto tickets last year.

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

#137
post #17
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…

> 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?

Yeah, tell me another way you can become insanely rich with no effort and such little cost.

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

#138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good luck. It's pretty difficult with the various capital controls in place to get lots of money out of the US without attracting attention. The Governor of NY was run out of office and nearly prosecuted when some bank compliance officer when transferring a few thousand bucks to a escort service.

> Good luck. It's pretty difficult with the various capital controls in place to get lots of money out of the US without attracting attention. No it isn't, buy Bitcoin, store coin in brain wallet, walk across any border.

How do you buy millions of dollars worth of bitcoin? Paypal?

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

#139
post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Good luck. It's pretty difficult with the various capital controls in place to get lots of money out of the US without attracting attention. No it isn't, buy Bitcoin, store coin in brain wallet, walk across any border.

Sure, but then you've changed the game into finding a way to purchase that much Bitcoin and also find a way to liquidate that much Bitcoin once you realize that few merchants accept it.

That's a much easier game, it's a 150 billion dollar market that trades a few billion a day; converting millions is nothing. Nor do you need to liquidate it all at once at your destination, you can take your time.

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

#140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Good luck. It's pretty difficult with the various capital controls in place to get lots of money out of the US without attracting attention. No it isn't, buy Bitcoin, store coin in brain wallet, walk across any border.

How do you buy millions of dollars worth of bitcoin? Paypal?

On a bitcoin exchange like Coinbase. Plenty of people have millions of dollars of Bitcoin. 10 million USD is about 2500 bitcoins, that'd barely move the market if purchased all at once, not at all if spread out over a day or two. 24 hour trading volume is about 3 billion USD.
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