NewScientist has an interesting bit of mathy history about beating a lottery. It takes a lot of work and usually some inside help to buy all the tickets and guarantee a win. Success also needs careless design of the lottery itself. The article lists three times when gangs succeeded, at least partly.
The first was by Voltaire, working with a mathematician! He organized a group to buy up all the tickets and won many times before the government figured out what was happening and changed the odds to make the strategy unprofitable.
The second was the Irish national lottery in 1992. The prize was only twice the total cost, so it probably wouldn’t be worth the trouble and expense even with a single winner. There were two other winners, so the syndicate lost.
A European syndicate beat the Texas state lottery in 2023, with enough gain to be worth the trouble. It appears that they had inside help, but so far the case hasn’t been publicly resolved.**
We think of Voltaire as a friend of the poor. In fact he was a gangster who ripped off the poor.
We’ve similarly romanticized Newton, though Newton’s math and physics discoveries were tremendous advances in knowledge. He played the same games as modern academics like Michael Mann, gaining royal favor and getting the best grants while preventing competitors from getting credit. Perfect example of unquestionably great work by a bad man.
We can’t separate Voltaire’s work from his character completely because part of his reputation is his alleged personality. Michael Mann is also inseparable for a different reason. His “science” and his behavior are equally dishonest.
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**Looking up more, the Texas lottery commission was canceled and the lottery placed under harsh restrictions, just last week. The swindlers had inside help from the lottery commission itself, including the head of the commission. The legislature decided it was incurably corrupt. Should have stopped the whole lottery, not just the commission. Gambling, including stock trading, violates Natural Law and should be absolutely banned everywhere.
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