Statistician Cracks Code For Lottery Tickets

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.'"

Comments

Re:Small typo

[Antisyzygy]

Statistics isn't really even that hard. Most mathematicians do the math because they enjoy it. If anything he has a arrogant side to him because he is wealthy.

Re:Small typo

[Antisyzygy]

They solve your problems for free because they are not obsessed with money and prestige like you are. You basically just told me that you exploit the intelligence of your former peers to your advantage, and that is why you are an "excellent" Engineer, with a capital E. You can do things when others only make it possible for your to do them. I base my knowledge on the fact that I will have an M.S. in applied math, and I am entering into a PhD in computational mathematics "somewhere". I say "somewhere" because I have three options, one for sure, one preferable, and one "meh, maybe". You are welcome to have my address too if you want to duke-it-out.

Re:Small typo

[Antisyzygy]

Statistics isn't hard? Let me guess, you base that on a couple of college courses? As an engineer, I've frequently run into statistical problems that neither I nor my coworkers have even the foggiest notion of how to approach. Things can get really ugly when you start dealing with the real world. You're certainly right about one thing though - most mathematicians do the math because they enjoy it. Those aforementioned problems that were beyond me? I typically recruit some mathematicians and physicists I know from college, and they solve them for free.

Re-read his post. He is stroking his own ego, and his overall tone suggests that he finds it funny to exploit his college scientist friends because they will do it for free. Furthermore, he made an assumption that I am not educated on the subject without any proof whatsoever. I never said I was good at mathematics, I just said that I am educated on the subject and he originally suggested that I "took a couple college courses". Frankly, I think he's kind of being a douche.