Cracking the Scratch Lottery Code
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Cracking the Scratch Lottery Code
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Re: Cracking the Scratch Lottery Code
#2In some states, the lottery accounts for more than 5 percent of education funding.
Am I the only one who finds this ironic?
Edit: Except, of course, for those who learn to predict 19 of 20 tickets correctly.
Re: Cracking the Scratch Lottery Code
#3My favourite line in the whole article was about the way he alerted the lottery board:
"The package was sent at 10 am. Two hours later, he received a call from Zufelt. Srivastava had correctly predicted 19 out of the 20 tickets. The next day, the tic-tac-toe game was pulled from stores."
I know that we're supposed to be fascinated by the statistical work done cracking the code, but my real sympathy is for the head of security that received that package. How do you react in such a situation?
As an aside, the statistician seems really cool too - it's a very forthright interview and the article's much better than I expected. Both the statistician and the author seem to be very surprised by the lack of concern shown for the apparent evidence of security breaches. This, of course, has a direct analogue with the way large multi-nationals treat computer security. I was only surprised to get to the end of the article and not find that the statistician had been threatened with prosecution or similar.
Re: Cracking the Scratch Lottery Code
#4Summary: If you are smart enough to crack the scratch off lottery you already make enough income that cracking the scratch off lottery is not justifiable.
Re: Cracking the Scratch Lottery Code
#5In some states, the lottery accounts for more than 5 percent of education funding. Am I the only one who finds this ironic? Edit: Except, of course, for those who learn to predict 19 of 20 tickets correctly.
Ironic? no; sad? yes.
Re: Cracking the Scratch Lottery Code
#6Summary: If you are smart enough to crack the scratch off lottery you already make enough income that cracking the scratch off lottery is not justifiable.
...but you can teach the technique to someone who is not so smart. Or you can use the technique to launder money.
Re: Cracking the Scratch Lottery Code
#7My favourite line in the whole article was about the way he alerted the lottery board: "The package was sent at 10 am. Two hours later, he received a call from Zufelt. Srivastava had correctly predicted 19 out of the 20 tickets. The next day, the tic-tac-toe game was pulled from stores." I know that we're supposed to be fascinated by the statistical work done cracking the code, but my real sympathy is for the head of…
>not find that the statistician had been threatened with prosecution or similar
may be because he is in Canada. Do they have DMCA alike?
Re: Cracking the Scratch Lottery Code
#8Why do they need a non random code to generate these? If they want to guarantee the number of winners, they can just ensure that they only release so many winners. This would require them "solving" all the tickets they were to release and holding/deleting/regenerating the ticket if they have enough winners already.
This may not be the most efficient system but it guarantees it isn't crackable with a couple of caveats:
1. They weren't always releasing a winner at a fixed time - i.e. they had to have x win per week, and they released a winner at regular intervals to guarantee separation. You don't want all the winners for a month produced in the first hour. Although this would be random and should be a possibility.
2. The random number generator was actually random.
Re: Cracking the Scratch Lottery Code
#9I checked my national lottery (Belgium), but sadly none of the 15 scratch card types they sell have 'baited hooks' or other unique numbers, as far as I can see ( http://lotto.be/NL/Spelen_en_Winnen/Krasspelen/default.aspx - in Dutch). I would laugh SO hard if we found some exploitable lottery...
Re: Cracking the Scratch Lottery Code
#10Even though he knew the formula, at least where I buy lottery tickets, the person behind the counter gives you the ticket. Assuming there are many more losers then winners, without being able to select the tickets yourself, it would seem as though it'd be a losing proposition. Now, if you were the store owner and had access to the tickets yourself, that would be a different story.