More on "The Luckiest Woman on Earth" - 3 Multi Million Dollar Winning Scratchoff tickets
July 29th, 2011 at 9:03:47 PM
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Background:
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/texas-woman-wins-millions-lottery-fourth-timestory?id=11097894
There is an article on her in the July 2011 issue of Harper's magazine, and I
happened to read it as I was flying back from LV today.
The author states that her "first" win was a standard pick six lottery ticket,
and he guesses that it may have been bought by her father, and she
claimed it on their behalf.
But then she won 3 more multi-million dollar prizes on SCRATCH-OFF tickets.
The author goes on to discuss how, in his view, this could have happened:
1) The Inside Job
2) The Code Cracker
3) Dumb Luck
I think the article is very interesting. But unfortunately I didn't see it
available on the Harpers magazine website.
There is a strong sentiment in the article that she was not able to win
3 huge scratch-off wins by dumb luck, although as pointed out in
previous threads, no one knows how much of her initial winnings
were poured back into buying tickets.
If she figured out a pattern in the way the Lottery Commission
distributes tickets, then this is all kosher and the Texas Lottery
Commission needs to address that weakness.
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/texas-woman-wins-millions-lottery-fourth-timestory?id=11097894
There is an article on her in the July 2011 issue of Harper's magazine, and I
happened to read it as I was flying back from LV today.
The author states that her "first" win was a standard pick six lottery ticket,
and he guesses that it may have been bought by her father, and she
claimed it on their behalf.
But then she won 3 more multi-million dollar prizes on SCRATCH-OFF tickets.
The author goes on to discuss how, in his view, this could have happened:
1) The Inside Job
2) The Code Cracker
3) Dumb Luck
I think the article is very interesting. But unfortunately I didn't see it
available on the Harpers magazine website.
There is a strong sentiment in the article that she was not able to win
3 huge scratch-off wins by dumb luck, although as pointed out in
previous threads, no one knows how much of her initial winnings
were poured back into buying tickets.
If she figured out a pattern in the way the Lottery Commission
distributes tickets, then this is all kosher and the Texas Lottery
Commission needs to address that weakness.
There's emptiness behind their eyes
There's dust in all their hearts
They just want to steal us all and take us all apart
July 29th, 2011 at 9:27:51 PM
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Quote: JohnnyQ
If she figured out a pattern in the way the Lottery Commission
distributes tickets, then this is all kosher and the Texas Lottery
Commission needs to address that weakness.
How could there be a pattern when the tickets are printed
randomly.
"It's not called gambling if the math is on your side."
July 30th, 2011 at 3:17:03 AM
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WHERE were the scratch off tickets purchased?
Is a prospective purchaser able to view a ticket before buying it?
Is a prospective purchaser able to view a ticket before buying it?
July 30th, 2011 at 4:50:31 AM
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I think the Ontario lottery had one occurence where some one managed to connect the serial numbers to the pay outs.
"Then you can admire the real gambler, who has neither eaten, slept, thought nor lived, he has so smarted under the scourge of his martingale, so suffered on the rack of his desire for a coup at trente-et-quarante" - Honore de Balzac, 1829
July 30th, 2011 at 6:31:06 AM
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According to the article, the winning tickets are NOT randomly
distributed in the overall printing of tickets because the Lottery
Commision doesn't want all of the top prizes to be won too
early, which could happen from time to time.
Two of them were in Bishop TX, and one was in the next town over.
She makes trips back to Bishop TX from Las Vegas to buy her tickets.
Correction: It is the AUGUST issue of Harper's.
distributed in the overall printing of tickets because the Lottery
Commision doesn't want all of the top prizes to be won too
early, which could happen from time to time.
Two of them were in Bishop TX, and one was in the next town over.
She makes trips back to Bishop TX from Las Vegas to buy her tickets.
Correction: It is the AUGUST issue of Harper's.
There's emptiness behind their eyes
There's dust in all their hearts
They just want to steal us all and take us all apart
August 1st, 2011 at 3:56:32 PM
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Although I have not read the article, I would not suspect "Inside Job". If you are going to risk serious Texas prison time, I would be sure to spread the wealth in order to avoid detection. This leaves "Code Breaking" and "Dumb Luck". My money would be on "Code Breaking". The purest randomization of plots on a graph is actually a very nice patttern...
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication - Leonardo da Vinci
August 1st, 2011 at 4:21:05 PM
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>WHERE were the scratch off tickets purchased?
I meant by this were they at a variety of distant locations that she had no reason to go to. If they were bought at a reasonable location a major hurdle is past.
>Is a prospective purchaser able to view a ticket before buying it?
If neither the purchaser nor retailer can view a ticket prior to purchase, then its hard to say it was rigged.
Ofcourse we don't know how many losing tickets she has purchased.
I meant by this were they at a variety of distant locations that she had no reason to go to. If they were bought at a reasonable location a major hurdle is past.
>Is a prospective purchaser able to view a ticket before buying it?
If neither the purchaser nor retailer can view a ticket prior to purchase, then its hard to say it was rigged.
Ofcourse we don't know how many losing tickets she has purchased.
August 1st, 2011 at 4:44:22 PM
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Quote: FleaStiff>WHERE were the scratch off tickets purchased?
I meant by this were they at a variety of distant locations that she had no reason to go to. If they were bought at a reasonable location a major hurdle is past.
q]
Her parents used to live in Bishop Texas. She currently lives in Las Vegas.
So she travels back to Bishop Texas to buy a bunch of the higher denom
scratch-off tickets from time to time.
And it seems odd to me that 2 big winner ( millions of $ ) scratch-offs
would come from one dumpy little convenience store.There's emptiness behind their eyes There's dust in all their hearts They just want to steal us all and take us all apart
August 1st, 2011 at 4:59:52 PM
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Quote: thecesspitI think the Ontario lottery had one occurence where some one managed to connect the serial numbers to the pay outs.
Actually, Mohan Srivastava, a geological statistician in Canada figured out which scratch off "tic-tac-toe" game cards were likely to be winners by studying the distribution of game numbers on the face of each card.
Read the full article in Wired.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication - Leonardo da Vinci
August 1st, 2011 at 5:15:34 PM
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Here's an article about the article ! It is a better summary than mine:
http://blogs.forbes.com/kiriblakeley/2011/07/21/meet-the-luckiest-woman-in-the-world/?utm_source=allactivity&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=20110721
The original Harper's article is not free on-line.
http://blogs.forbes.com/kiriblakeley/2011/07/21/meet-the-luckiest-woman-in-the-world/?utm_source=allactivity&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=20110721
The original Harper's article is not free on-line.
There's emptiness behind their eyes
There's dust in all their hearts
They just want to steal us all and take us all apart
August 1st, 2011 at 5:19:36 PM
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Correction, just found the Harper's article with a google search:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/60495831/Nathaniel-Rich-The-Luckiest-Woman-on-Earth-Three-Ways-to-Win-the-Lottery
http://www.scribd.com/doc/60495831/Nathaniel-Rich-The-Luckiest-Woman-on-Earth-Three-Ways-to-Win-the-Lottery
There's emptiness behind their eyes
There's dust in all their hearts
They just want to steal us all and take us all apart
August 8th, 2011 at 4:51:26 PM
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From another thread: outed as retired statistics professor.
August 8th, 2011 at 5:30:13 PM
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And nobody has yet to say how much she had to invest
in the lottery to win all those times.
in the lottery to win all those times.
"It's not called gambling if the math is on your side."
August 8th, 2011 at 5:36:02 PM
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Buying entire packs of tickets each time win or lose... still I'm sure she was in the plus column!
August 13th, 2011 at 7:08:31 PM
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Well I have to admit that I thought this topic and article would have
sparked more discussion on this site. I wonder if her winning
wasn't actually some combination of all three things that the
author of the article speculated about.
Especially considering, according to the other site referenced
above, that:
"Three of her wins, all in two-year intervals, were by scratch-off
tickets bought at the same mini mart in the town of Bishop".
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2023514/Joan-R-Ginther-won-lottery-4-times-Stanford-University-statistics-PhD.html#ixzz1UxtDBGQj
sparked more discussion on this site. I wonder if her winning
wasn't actually some combination of all three things that the
author of the article speculated about.
Especially considering, according to the other site referenced
above, that:
"Three of her wins, all in two-year intervals, were by scratch-off
tickets bought at the same mini mart in the town of Bishop".
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2023514/Joan-R-Ginther-won-lottery-4-times-Stanford-University-statistics-PhD.html#ixzz1UxtDBGQj
There's emptiness behind their eyes
There's dust in all their hearts
They just want to steal us all and take us all apart
August 14th, 2011 at 7:38:37 PM
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there is another thread talking about this story, and i really like a comment someone made there:
Quote: weaselman
I think she must definitely have found a loophole. Not based on the smallness of the probability, but simply because I can't believe a PhD in statistics was stupid enough to play lottery (especially in such massive volumes) without knowing something that would make her believe it was worth it.
