Not really. The lottery organiser didn't lose out on any money here. The total prize money is going to be paid out to someone. In fact, the operators, through t

Not really. The lottery organiser didn't lose out on any money here. The total prize money is going to be paid out to someone. In fact, the operators, through this mis-design, might have encouraged more lottery ticket buying than there would have otherwise been (e.g. this guy started buying thousands of tickets) - so this 'flaw' would have made the lottery more money! It all starts to go wrong when the secret gets out; ordinary lottery players might avoid the game because they see it as rigged, so the revenue goes down. At this point, the lottery organisers have to do something.