Help me Hack the Lottery or, the worst $90 investment ever

You don't want theoretical help. You want real-world help. Hang out at the counter where tickets are sold. You're bound to encounter someone who asks what serial numbers the tickets end in. Take that guy out for a drink and find out what he knows, how he knows it, and if it ever worked for him. I've seen several people ask about the ticket serial numbers and not buy, but scratch-offs aren't my thing, so I didn't bother to pursue it. But there's clearly knowledge out there that people have about this. [typo edit]

Also edited to add: Even ask the dealer. He might know something -- although it'd probably be against the rules for him to say anything, even what he's seen. But maybe he can point you to customers who know.

People who design these games think about security. Sometimes (rarely) exploits get unnoticed and go into production.

I'm confused about why we are supposed to believe that there is anything exploitable about this particular card?

Looks like those are for (three character) codes under the revealable area of the card. Kind of like a checksum for what was won.

Based on the comments it looks like the reliability is a little bit sketchy.