Don't they split the prize if there are multiple winners? How can they ensure +EV? They could spend money to buy every combination but split the jackpot with multiple winners? Am I missing something?
I think they know it's still a gamble...
A rogue Romanian economist legally gamed the lottery
51–60 of 88 posts
Re: A rogue Romanian economist legally gamed the lottery
#52It seems strange to me that any lottery would ever let itself get an EV > 1.
Sometimes, the big lotteries like Powerball and Megamillions do get to EV > 1. Not only is it unreasonable to buy the 240 million tickets for every combination (financially and logistically), but even if you did, if you end up sharing the winnings, then you lose millions. EV > 1 is still not horrible.
Re: A rogue Romanian economist legally gamed the lottery
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
Card counting is generally legal in the US as long as it's done with the mind, and not an external device[1]. That said, it's usually against casino rules, so they will make you leave if they suspect it, and possibly put your face on the internal list they have of known card counters if you do it enough or win enough. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Card_counting#Legal_status
Ok, so maybe it is not against a federal law but still, making you leave the casino because you are too good at the game you're playing seems weird.
Eh. They've defined rules that say you can't count cards. If you do so, you aren't playing by the rules, therefore you aren't allowed to play.
It's slightly odd to set rules that define what you can and can't do within your own mind, but it's not out of bounds, just hard to correctly enforce. Lucky for casinos, they don't care about correctly enforcing, they just care about making money. They're happy to let you count cards badly and lose money, and they're happy to kick out people winning a lot, regardless of whether they are actually breaking any rules.
It's sort of like cheating at playing Marco Polo. Sure, you're capable of opening your eyes when people can't see, but doing so is cheating, and calling out people you suspect of cheating but can't prove can be somewhat common.
Re: A rogue Romanian economist legally gamed the lottery
#54That brought some memories. I calculated that Spanish football quiniela had a little more than three million possible results. Since you could make multi-result bets, only a few thousands boletos were needed to make a sure win. The rules required to manually fill the bets, but it was workable building a robot.
Then the government, that was not happy of paying a percentage of the profits to football teams, introduced loto and prizes plummeted.
Re: A rogue Romanian economist legally gamed the lottery
#55When I was in my final year of high school, Coca-cola was giving away an iPod Nano to lucky winners who entered codes from plastic bottle caps or glass bottle labels. An iPod was given away once per day, except Monday, when they were given out once per hour. I was competing against the rest of Switzerland. Each code had to be entered on a website, earning 0, 5, 10, 20 or 50 points. You could then choose how many poin…
I totally hear you at the last part. I'm in the US with a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering with continuous learning and training (either in programming or something MechE related like GD&T and CAD training). But I feel like my peers are totally blowing me out of the water in terms of professional growth especially those not in the MechE field. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, shrug .
Learning how to market yourself can give you a nice leg up. Things like having a web site detailing your accomplishments, writing articles, attending trade conferences, doing piecework for people who need CAD work done, etc.
Re: A rogue Romanian economist legally gamed the lottery
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know why this is getting downvotes - entrepreneurship is something I've considered. It doesn't help me get a visa though. I tried emailing computer repair shops asking them to advertise my data migration services - using an Apple II to copy off 5.25" floppies, a Mac LC to read DD floppies, and a PowerBook G3 to read SCSI and JAZ disks. Unfortunately, I only got one reply that asked to see a poster before they…
What kind of work are you looking for? Have you tried remote work?
These days I'll take anything short-term, even remote.
For a long-term career I have the education & work experience prerequisites for New Zealand's Skilled Migrant Category, Australia's 186, and Canada's Express Entry.
In the past, I did two remote contracts (Pixelgarde and AnswerTo), but in both cases the employer reached out to me first. I'm not really sure how to find jobs. My résumé is here:
Re: A rogue Romanian economist legally gamed the lottery
#57Similar to David Walsh, he set up MoNA with his profits.
Re: A rogue Romanian economist legally gamed the lottery
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
Selling it after was a good idea - I built my own iPod Video by fixing broken iPods for friends, and didn't need the Nano in the end. After a few years I gave it to a kid at church in Shenzhen. However, I did find a way to convert UBS KeyClub points into cash. They're a loyalty-card system similar to frequent flyer miles, and are worth 1 CHF per point. When my friends visited Geneva, we planned to spend the points in…
Buying a cheese fondue is the most Swiss thing about this story. Cheese fondues were a fad in the US before I was born, and I know a lot of people's parent's who own them and use them maybe once every 5 years.
We still love fondue but mostly do chocolate at home...
The cheese ones are so yummy...
Re: A rogue Romanian economist legally gamed the lottery
#59The investors — small business owners, machine operators, housekeepers, and doctors — had been regaled with tales of riches, and promised participation in up to 9 lottos per year. Yet, they’d only received a $1.4k return on their $4k investment.
Folks: thats > 25% return on investment. I'm sorry but my sympathies with these investors walked out the door at this point: If you can get 25% ROI, stop looking for more.
Re: A rogue Romanian economist legally gamed the lottery
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
What kind of work are you looking for? Have you tried remote work?
These days I'll take anything short-term, even remote. For a long-term career I have the education & work experience prerequisites for New Zealand's Skilled Migrant Category, Australia's 186, and Canada's Express Entry. In the past, I did two remote contracts (Pixelgarde and AnswerTo), but in both cases the employer reached out to me first. I'm not really sure how to find jobs. My résumé is here: http://peterburk.fre…
I’m much younger and less experienced, so what I’m going to say could be irrelevant, but your resume seems too busy.
I’d cut it to 1 page, remove all the symbols, flags and logos. I’d also remove most of the extra stuff (personal interests, volunteering, objective, references).
Essentially, almost anything that doesn’t show that I’m a very talented engineer should go. Also, I’d consider using latex if not already and go for a more sobre style that focuses on ease of reading. The way your education part is indented is great, the work experience part seems to have something wrong with it.