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I can't say too much, because they are a current client of mine, but I've been doing work with a wholesaler for one of the biggest lotteries here in my country,

I can't say too much, because they are a current client of mine, but I've been doing work with a wholesaler for one of the biggest lotteries here in my country, and they seem to have a LOT of customers who bulk buy lottery tickets in what seems to be patterns. I am talking hundreds of thousands of dollars of lottery tickets per week. Their winning are also along those lines. I don't know about the industry, but these sound like professional lottery players who check odds and play the system much as they would the stock market. They probably have set systems in place and complex prediction and statistical algorithms which ensures they win just more than they lose? I am thinking that 'pro' players such as these might skew the statistic for winners to a large extent?

praptak 9y ago
I don't believe that odds in favor of a player happen in lotteries, except for rare 'bugs' in the game design, which are fixed as soon as the organizer spots them. A more probable explanation are addicts or money laundering.
- shubb 9y ago
  Explains why 'i won it on an ico' is such an appealing explanation of wealth to some bitcoin users...
- jacquesm 9y ago
  > rare 'bugs' in the game design They may not be all that rare. > A more probable explanation are addicts or money laundering. The second is definitely a factor. Even the Dutch state run casinos were/are used for this.
- lordnacho 9y ago
  > I don't believe that odds in favor of a player happen in lotteries, except for rare 'bugs' in the game design, which are fixed as soon as the organizer spots them. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2183070/MIT-maths-geniuses-netted-8million-Massachusetts-state-lottery-discovering-loophole.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2183070/MIT-maths-ge... If the game is badly designed, some smart cookie will find out and exploit it.
dEnigma 9y ago
How would they control the odds of winning? Luck aside, and especially when you buy lottery tickets in bulk, the odds are definitely against the player. Is there something I'm not aware of?
ldjb 9y ago
As others have mentioned, it would be impossible to 'game' the system in that way, unless there's something fishy going on. Perhaps these people are re-selling the lottery tickets. I can imagine there are ways to earn a lot of money doing that. Naturally, the amount of tickets you'd order would reflect demand for tickets.
cyberferret 9y ago
Re: Gaming the system - I am not 100% sure, but the basic lottery is picking 7 numbers from a total of 45 that are drawn each week. Those normal games are around $15-$20. However, you can buy 'System' entries in the games where you can pick 8, 9 or 10 numbers in a game. That obviously increases your chances of winning, but become increasingly expensive. I believe buying a 10 number system in a game is something in the order of $5000 or similar? I know there are sites that show lottery draw numbers picked going back many decades. Coin toss theory aside, I am assuming that if someone was to analyse all those numbers and do a statistical probability analysis of the frequency of all 45 numbers, they could form a basic idea of what numbers would likely come up? Combine that with a group of large system entries which increases your chance of winning, and it may be worthwhile. Like I said above, we are talking six figure sums of money here. If it was just a rich addict without any pattern, then I would expect to see lots of outgoings, but no winnings, however, the winnings with these particular customers seems to be on par with their spending, on a totally random draw, which seems to indicate to me that they have worked out a way to bring up their win/loss ration to at least equivalence, and tipped slightly in their favour.

praptak 9y ago

I don't believe that odds in favor of a player happen in lotteries, except for rare 'bugs' in the game design, which are fixed as soon as the organizer spots them. A more probable explanation are addicts or money laundering.

shubb 9y ago
Explains why 'i won it on an ico' is such an appealing explanation of wealth to some bitcoin users...
jacquesm 9y ago
> rare 'bugs' in the game design They may not be all that rare. > A more probable explanation are addicts or money laundering. The second is definitely a factor. Even the Dutch state run casinos were/are used for this.
lordnacho 9y ago
> I don't believe that odds in favor of a player happen in lotteries, except for rare 'bugs' in the game design, which are fixed as soon as the organizer spots them. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2183070/MIT-maths-geniuses-netted-8million-Massachusetts-state-lottery-discovering-loophole.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2183070/MIT-maths-ge... If the game is badly designed, some smart cookie will find out and exploit it.

dEnigma 9y ago

How would they control the odds of winning? Luck aside, and especially when you buy lottery tickets in bulk, the odds are definitely against the player. Is there something I'm not aware of?

ldjb 9y ago

As others have mentioned, it would be impossible to 'game' the system in that way, unless there's something fishy going on. Perhaps these people are re-selling the lottery tickets. I can imagine there are ways to earn a lot of money doing that. Naturally, the amount of tickets you'd order would reflect demand for tickets.

cyberferret 9y ago

Re: Gaming the system - I am not 100% sure, but the basic lottery is picking 7 numbers from a total of 45 that are drawn each week. Those normal games are around $15-$20. However, you can buy 'System' entries in the games where you can pick 8, 9 or 10 numbers in a game. That obviously increases your chances of winning, but become increasingly expensive. I believe buying a 10 number system in a game is something in the order of $5000 or similar? I know there are sites that show lottery draw numbers picked going back many decades. Coin toss theory aside, I am assuming that if someone was to analyse all those numbers and do a statistical probability analysis of the frequency of all 45 numbers, they could form a basic idea of what numbers would likely come up? Combine that with a group of large system entries which increases your chance of winning, and it may be worthwhile. Like I said above, we are talking six figure sums of money here. If it was just a rich addict without any pattern, then I would expect to see lots of outgoings, but no winnings, however, the winnings with these particular customers seems to be on par with their spending, on a totally random draw, which seems to indicate to me that they have worked out a way to bring up their win/loss ration to at least equivalence, and tipped slightly in their favour.