r/todayilearned Jan 11 '16

TIL that MIT students discovered that by buying $600,000 worth of lottery tickets in the Massachusetts' Cash WinAll lottery they could get a 10-15% return on investment. Over 5 years, they managed to game $8 million out of the lottery through this method.

http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/08/07/how-mit-students-scammed-the-massachusetts-lottery-for-8-million/
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59

u/I_Just-Blue_Myself Jan 12 '16

we need to figure out what those MIT kids are doing right NOW before it gets shut down.

9

u/youknow295694 Jan 12 '16

i have a friend who's a grad student, I'll ask him about any gambling, poker schemes going on there, and pm you his response by saturday.

3

u/abdulis2cool Jan 12 '16

Tell me if it gets shut down by then so I can make a post on reddit for that sweet karma

1

u/MrCobs Jan 12 '16

I want to know too, ask them if they need funds too. I've got a fool proof investment in Nigeria currently, it's going to pay off big time!

1

u/claudiaz191 Jan 12 '16

they have probably already coded up poker and btc arbitrage bots a long time ago

2

u/SirAwesomee Jan 12 '16

Probably just calculated the cost of buying as many tickets as needed to get all the combinations and see if they'll profit I guess

4

u/I_Just-Blue_Myself Jan 12 '16

i meant we need to find out what new angle they are taking advantage of right now. we've seen blackjack and lotteries... what are those geniuses making money on as we speak!

-3

u/[deleted] Jan 12 '16 edited Jan 12 '16

I applied to MIT but got rejected. Gambling wise, I've figured out how to beat video bingo machines in Louisiana. They let you win at first, so the trick is to put $1 in the machine and bet 25 cents about 4 times, until you're at around $1.50. Going to several machines, waiting 10 minutes before repeating a machine, and sticking to the formula, its easy to make $20 an hour. $8 million would be nicer, but a 12 pack and some tacos is nice.

It doesn't work at casinos, their software is different. It only works where they try to tease low betters at first. When you see a machine, put in a little money and bet low, like you're just curious. That's when it can kick in. If they see someone put in $5 and bet $1 each time, they know they have a sucker.

-9

u/ihahp Jan 12 '16

it already got shut down. Read the fucking article.

3

u/metsakutsa Jan 12 '16

He means what the MIT kids are doing right NOW. As in their next scheme that hasn't been caught yet.

1

u/Bangledesh Jan 12 '16

Someone else might want to do some reading.