2 ms·
You may have noticed that "every ticket a winner" scratch cards are no longer a thing.
by eschneider 2y ago
You may have noticed that "every ticket a winner" scratch cards are no longer a thing.
- WalterBright 2y agoLOL, thanks for pointing that out! I didn't because I don't play the lottery, as lotteries are for losers.
- eschneider 2y agoLotteries are for losers, but scratch tickets are interesting crypto problems. Winning tickets are printed algorithmically and (at least around here) serial numbered. Given past winning ticket numbers (available via FOIA request, ask me how I know...) it's possible to determine winning serial numbers in the future. (At least in states that don't rotate their pseudorandom seeds, and some...don't.) Finding the winning tickets out in the world such that you can get away with buying just them is a harder problem, as they're normally sold 'in order', and going around THAT is the thing that gets your winning ticket DQ'd. There's always something nice about "free money", and it's achievable here, but an honest job is less work.