Beating the Massachusetts State Lottery’s Cash WinFall game

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Interesting read:

 

http://www.mass.gov/ig/publications/reports-and-recommendations/2012/lottery-cash-winfall-letter-july-2012.pdf

 

Despite the risk of someone claiming the jackpot, when the game was poised for a rolldown Cash WinFall became a game in which the odds and prospective payouts combined to make each ticket’s potential value slightly more than its $2 price. People around the state – and as far away as Michigan – took advantage of this feature and found ways to profit from it.

 

The OIG interviewed the principals of four betting groups that collectively were responsible for wagering more than $40 million on Cash WinFall tickets – and generating $16 million in Lottery revenue. The core of their strategies was essentially to purchase a large enough number of tickets so that the overall results could be counted on to approximate the game’s probabilities.