State lotteries catch a lot of flak, labeled by turns a tax
on the poor, a tax on the stupid and a fiscal cop-out that ignores local governments'
root budget problems. But every so
often, someone figures out a way to beat the game — and the state ends up
benefiting anyway.
On Friday, the Massachusetts Inspector General issued a
report detailing how not one but three "syndicates" cracked the state's
Cash WinFall lottery game. The break was
first reported last fall by the Boston Globe.
Cash WinFall involved buying a $2 ticket and picking six
numbers between 1 and 46. Unlike most
other lotteries, the jackpot was capped at $2 million. If that figure was
reached and no one matched all six numbers, the money in the jackpot was
distributed among the lower tier prizes for that drawing — otherwise known as a
"roll-down." The odds of hitting the jackpot were one in 9,366,819.
But if you were smart, patient and had the means — as the
three betting groups were — there was a loophole in the system big enough to
drive a truck through.
Read all about it at: http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-how-an-mit-senior-a-michigan-retiree-and-two-biomedical-researchers-beat-the-lottery-2012-8
No comments:
Post a Comment