4 ms·
It bothers me how the article implies that they were doing something wrong. They figured out a trick to the system and used it to their benefit.
by kdamken 11y ago
It bothers me how the article implies that they were doing something wrong. They figured out a trick to the system and used it to their benefit.
- dheera 11y agoExactly. Also, lotteries and gambling are all about who can come up with the best strategy to game the system within a prescribed set of written rules. Like everything else in life, it's a puzzle. What's the point of any game if it's all chance and no strategy?
- JoeAltmaier 11y agoI don't think that's generally assumed. Gambling is random; its exciting to risk and win. There doesn't have to be any strategy at all. What 'strategy' are all those grandmas using at the nickel slots?
- dheera 11y agoThat's why those grandmas lose money most of the time. One day a smart grandma will figure out how to game those machines too; it's an open-ended puzzle left to the world. They may build a better machine, and the world will again build a better grandma over time. The world and economy is a system with rules and ethics, and entrepreneurs game that system within those rules and ethical bounds. Ping-pong wasn't first played with the intention of having back-spins and side-spins, but spin balls are perfectly within the written rules and are supposed to confuse and defeat your opponent. If you want to have an edge at rock-paper-scissors, it's all about statistically analyzing and gaming your opponent, because humans are extremely bad at being uniformly random. There are tournaments for this. It's just humans being intelligent beings. These students are gaming the lottery just the same. Rules are rules; game and engineer the hell out of anything within those bounds, I say. Make the world an interesting place.