text: 
  
  A game of chance became anything but (2011) - prostoalex
  http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/10/16/a_game_of_chance_became_anything_but/?page=full
  
  ======
  bumbledraven
  _[I]n August 2010 ... a group led by a 2007 MIT graduate named Yuran Lu found
  a way to win virtually all the prizes themselves. ... During a four-day
  stretch between Aug. 13 and Aug. 16, 2010, Lu and his MIT classmate James
  Harvey ... bought nearly $1.4 million in tickets._
  
  Yuran Lu and James Harvey are co-founders of QuicklyChat (YC S12 -
  [http://www.quicklychat.com/about.html](http://www.quicklychat.com/about.html))
  [http://blog.ycombinator.com/quicklychat-yc-s12-brings-
  push-t...](http://blog.ycombinator.com/quicklychat-yc-s12-brings-push-to-talk-
  video)
  
  I guess they had no trouble with question 3 on the YC application: _Please
  tell us about the time you most successfully hacked some (non-computer) system
  to your advantage._
  
  ------
  fragmede
  Perhaps more interesting is the actual report this article is based off of:
  [http://www.mass.gov/ig/publications/reports-and-
  recommendati...](http://www.mass.gov/ig/publications/reports-and-
  recommendations/2012/lottery-cash-winfall-letter-july-2012.pdf)
  
  ~~~
  thaumasiotes
  > Every time Random Strategies turned in a batch of winning tickets, the
  > Lottery generated a W-2G for every member of the group. Even small investors
  > in the MIT group -– for example, someone who won $800 over the course of a
  > year -– would get dozens of W-2Gs every year and have to spend hours
  > accounting for their winnings on their tax returns. The hassle prompted some
  > people to cash out and leave the investment pool
  
  Why couldn't the group invest in tickets under its own name and distribute
  earnings to investors in a slightly less paperwork-heavy fashion?
  
  ------
  alcari
  This reminds me of [1], where scratch-off games were founded to be using PRNG
  output improperly, allowing winning tickets to be identified without playing
  them.
  
  [1]:
  [http://www.wired.com/2011/01/ff_lottery/](http://www.wired.com/2011/01/ff_lottery/)
  
  ~~~
  anom987
  That incident was quickly referenced in the article.
  
   _“One would have to be brain-dead not to notice that the avalanche [in sales]
  had begun in the days leading up to the August 16th draw,’’ said Mohan
  Srivastava, a Canadian statistician who gained fame in gambling circles when
  he found a flaw in a Canadian instant game, allowing him to accurately pick
  winning tickets 90 percent of the time._
  
  ------
  mikefivedeuce
  There's a nice explanation of the game and the exploitation in the book How
  Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking.
  
  