Statistician Cracks Code For Lottery Tickets 374
Hugh Pickens writes writes "Lottery Post has an interesting story about Mohan Srivastava, an MIT educated statistician who became intrigued by a particular type of scratch-off lottery ticket called an extended-play game — sometimes referred to as a baited hook — that has a tic-tac-toe grid of visible numbers that looks like a miniature spreadsheet. Srivastava discovered a defect in the game: The visible numbers turned out to reveal essential information about the digits hidden under the latex coating. Nothing needed to be scratched off — the ticket could be cracked if you figured out the secret code. Srivastava's fundamental insight was that the apparent randomness of the scratch ticket was just a facade, a mathematical lie because the software that generates the tickets has to precisely control the number of winners while still appearing random. 'It wasn't that hard,' says Srivastava. 'I do the same kind of math all day long.'"
Small typo (Score:4, Funny)
breaking news (Score:5, Funny)
Horatio Caine says (Score:3, Funny)
Now that's *sunglasses* the ticket.
YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
Re:Old story... (Score:5, Funny)
A week is not old for slashdot, I can see you are new here so we can let it slide this once. In the future you should probably also not read the articles.
Re:When was the last time you picked.... (Score:2, Funny)
Yeah, no way a guy named Mohan Srivastava would know anyone who works in a 7-eleven.
Re:Small typo (Score:5, Funny)
How do you tell the difference between an MIT mathematician and a smart MIT mathematician? One talks to the media, the other is a millionaire.
Why major in math? (Score:4, Funny)
Because I am calling you from my boat, BITCH!
Re:Seems to be the same as the Wired Article (Score:3, Funny)
Copying others' work without attribution, in a forum dedicated to the idea of reaping riches without working for it? I would have never imagined!
Re:breaking news (Score:2, Funny)
This just in - Enrollment in MIT's Statistics course increases 600 percent.
Re:Small typo (Score:5, Funny)
Jesus, what a choice to have to make: consulting or scratch lottery tickets.
Better to throw oneself off a cliff.
Re:Small typo (Score:5, Funny)
The best advice for someone who wants to "make millions" came from the Buddha.
If you meet the millionaire on the road, kill him?
Re:Coolest part of the article (Score:3, Funny)
Mother Theresa was a fraud, and for that matter died after having amassed a lot of money that NEVER went to helping the poor and needy. But, yes, she was successful. Hell, she even convinced you and at least 1.166 billion other people that she was a saint!