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Several years ago, while doing research for a school project, a group of MIT students realized that, for a few days every three months or so, the most reliably lucrative lottery game in the country was Massachusetts' Cash WinFall, because of a quirk in the way a jackpot was broken down into smaller prizes if there was no big winner. The math whizzes quickly discovered that buying about $100,000 in Cash WinFall tickets on those days would virtually guarantee success. Buying $600,000 worth of tickets would bring a 15%–20% return on investment, according to the New York Daily News.
When the jackpot rose to $2 million, the students bought in, dividing the prize money among group members. But they didn't stop there; they were so successful in their caper that they were eventually able to quit their day jobs and bring in investors to front the money they needed to purchase the requisite number of lottery tickets.
Original Submission
(Score: 3, Informative) by Thexalon on Tuesday June 09 2015, @02:03PM
Also, casinos kick out those who they realize do understand probability, try to get everyone good and drunk so even if they understand probability they won't use their knowledge, and design their games so that even if you know what you're doing you'll still lose.
The only game commonly played in a casino that is possible to win (on average) is blackjack, and they'll kick you out if you engage in the strategies that allow you to win (it's not just card-counting).
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.