Scratch Lottery Code Cracked, Not Random

[lnspin]

Know its not a casino but didn't know where to put it.

This is an excerpt of the article, So the question is Can anything a computer does be truly random? Guy is cracking lottery ticlkets with 90% accuracy

The tickets are clearly mass-produced, which means there must be some computer program that lays down the numbers. Of course, it would be really nice if the computer could just spit out random digits. But that’s not possible, since the lottery corporation needs to control the number of winning tickets. The game can’t be truly random. Instead, it has to generate the illusion of randomness while actually being carefully determined.”

Full article , its a good read. http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/01/ff_lottery/all/1

[funeral979]

Very interesting article!

I have to ask though, if there was some sort of "flaw" that you could see visibly.....wouldn't it be very hard to exploit this?

Its not like you can walk into a convenience store and ask the cashier to see the rest of the roll and to just choose the tickets you want. Also, even the next available ticket on the roll is usually only visible to the cashier, not you. So how do you go about looking for the winners then?

And here in Texas, you see more and more vending machines popping up, replacing buying them from a person.....so you can't see what you get until purchased.

I have a hard time believing this individual could earn $600 a day using the flaw he discovered....but who knows?

[4 of a kind]

Very interesting article!

I have to ask though, if there was some sort of "flaw" that you could see visibly.....wouldn't it be very hard to exploit this?

Its not like you can walk into a convenience store and ask the cashier to see the rest of the roll and to just choose the tickets you want. Also, even the next available ticket on the roll is usually only visible to the cashier, not you. So how do you go about looking for the winners then?

And here in Texas, you see more and more vending machines popping up, replacing buying them from a person.....so you can't see what you get until purchased.

I have a hard time believing this individual could earn $600 a day using the flaw he discovered....but who knows?

This issue is discussed if you read the whole article.

The obvious and most efficient way would be collusion with a retail agent. And from what I could see there certainly wouldn't be a problem finding a willing agent.

My sister once owned a 7/11 store quite a few years ago when owned and operated mostly by Americans. She had boxes of scratch offs which before bringing to the counter had to be activated with a code from the box before that batch could be valid. Each box was usually $500.00 dollars worth of tickets. We would have been able to review every ticket before they were even activated if we had this knowledge. Hence the only ones being sold to the public would have all been losers.

[funeral979]

This issue is discussed if you read the whole article.

The obvious and most efficient way would be collusion with a retail agent.

I did read the whole article, but I just cannot see that as a viable method. What are you going to do with all the losing tickets? The articles explanation was just not very plausible.

There is just such a miniscule number of even mid sized winners, it would seem to me that you would need to collude with dozens of retailers to have a chance of getting one grand prize.

EDIT: Just read what you added on......I would be suspicious if I saw a retailer selling singletons or broken rolls....

[4 of a kind]

Like that guy said he didn't think it was worth it. But if you had the right access maybe not a bad little side income. Like they say "you never know" but your odds of hitting the big one are vastly improved.

[steveh35]

When the lottery in Britain released a similar scratchcard they covered the main board numbers too so you couldn't use this system without scratching.

There's a certain shop I used to goto where I have never won on a scratchcard and have often wondered if they can somehow scan the cards before they sell them.

There was a story of a shop worker in UK who stole and scratched £19,000 worth of scratchcards and won just £50.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-sto...5875-20973957/

[Da_Gambla]

Very interesting article!

I have to ask though, if there was some sort of "flaw" that you could see visibly.....wouldn't it be very hard to exploit this?

Its not like you can walk into a convenience store and ask the cashier to see the rest of the roll and to just choose the tickets you want. Also, even the next available ticket on the roll is usually only visible to the cashier, not you. So how do you go about looking for the winners then?

And here in Texas, you see more and more vending machines popping up, replacing buying them from a person.....so you can't see what you get until purchased.

I have a hard time believing this individual could earn $600 a day using the flaw he discovered....but who knows?

The lottery will take back unscratched tickets from any merchant/vendor, probably even the public. The method he was leaning towards (to not involve 2nd or 3rd parties) was to buy BULK tickets (saying they were for potential gifts, or business promotional items, anything really). Then you'd scan for the winners, and take back the unscratched losers. He contacted vendors who said this wouldn't be a problem at all.

You could easily test this theory by calling several lottery merchants, tell them you received, say 20 lottery tickets as a present, but you don't want them for whatever reason. Can you bring them in and exchange them for cash?

In the very least, you should be able to trade unused tickets for other tickets as an equal swap.

- Keith