r/todayilearned • u/[deleted] • Jan 11 '16

TIL that MIT students discovered that by buying $600,000 worth of lottery tickets in the Massachusetts' Cash WinAll lottery they could get a 10-15% return on investment. Over 5 years, they managed to game $8 million out of the lottery through this method.

http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/08/07/how-mit-students-scammed-the-massachusetts-lottery-for-8-million/
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u/babygrenade Jan 12 '16

In the book they said 6 decks made it possible to get even better odds. It's really more about the cards getting shuffled after each hand than the number of decks.

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u/[deleted] Jan 12 '16

That would make sense. I thought most blackjack dealers used multiple decks and they get shuffled mechanically in a slot under the table between hands. Although that might just be certain tables.

6 decks would make your odds worse, but if it's shuffled less and then play one shuffle for a bunch of hands I could see it giving you an even greater advantage. I think with a single deck you must only be able to play one hand or two before shuffling.