More lottery random not random

For those who do not check the Drudge Report 50 times a day like me, here is the article:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2023514/Lucky-woman-won-lottery-times-outed-Stanford-University-statistics-PhD.html

Seems a woman figured out the random scratch-offs were not random and went to buy them when there was a better chance they would pay off. Just wondering what everybody thinks about this. Is it possible? If it is, was what she did wrong? Could Wizard do this and put us all up at Caesars Palace with RFB for a week?

Sorry, Wiz, just kidding.

Anyways, I don't find it cheating any more or less than say that guy the NGCB Black Booked after he got caught beating the algorithm in the AC Keno game. (Yes, he got the BB for fixing slots which IS a crime.) If she used freely available information she is OK in my book. If she had help on the inside, say at the printer, then no.

What say you?

I'd be curious to know how she figured out the shipping schedule. It's also pretty stupid of the Texas Lottery commission to have set it up in that manner.

But, I gotta think she simply was using info that is either publicly available, or easily figured out.


The NGCB guy thing was different in that he was using information he discovered in as a result of his job. He SHOULD have informed his supervisors. Instead, he tried to use the info to cheat.

So now I gotta go try to find that thread about that Texas lottery winner...