1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:02,280 Speaker 1: Guess what will what's that man go? So in two 2 00:00:02,279 --> 00:00:05,400 Speaker 1: thousand twelve, this little farming village in Spain called Sodetto 3 00:00:05,760 --> 00:00:09,200 Speaker 1: was struggling and there had been this downturn in the economy. 4 00:00:09,440 --> 00:00:13,040 Speaker 1: There was also this massive drought and the town's homeowner 5 00:00:13,080 --> 00:00:16,400 Speaker 1: association was running short on cash. But for some reason 6 00:00:16,520 --> 00:00:18,640 Speaker 1: they decided to spend what was left of their dues 7 00:00:18,800 --> 00:00:21,520 Speaker 1: on the Christmas Lottery. I guess this is kind of 8 00:00:21,520 --> 00:00:23,840 Speaker 1: a Spanish tradition and the whole country gets into it, 9 00:00:23,920 --> 00:00:27,240 Speaker 1: but they bought tickets for the whole town. Wow. Yeah, 10 00:00:27,240 --> 00:00:29,240 Speaker 1: I've actually heard about the Christmas Lottery. I think we 11 00:00:29,280 --> 00:00:31,640 Speaker 1: wrote about it a while back, and of course it 12 00:00:31,720 --> 00:00:34,280 Speaker 1: being such a big deal in Spain. Actually saw this 13 00:00:34,360 --> 00:00:37,520 Speaker 1: one study where people were so optimistic around the time 14 00:00:37,520 --> 00:00:39,760 Speaker 1: and the Christmas Lottery, Like, even though they know they're 15 00:00:39,760 --> 00:00:43,400 Speaker 1: most likely not going to win, but that optimism actually 16 00:00:43,479 --> 00:00:47,280 Speaker 1: changes their opinions of politicians, and so whoever's running for 17 00:00:47,320 --> 00:00:50,519 Speaker 1: reelection at the time, even if they're overwhelmingly disliked, they 18 00:00:50,640 --> 00:00:53,320 Speaker 1: end up getting this big bounce because of this. Oh 19 00:00:53,440 --> 00:00:56,400 Speaker 1: that's crazy. But going back to this town, they were 20 00:00:56,440 --> 00:01:00,760 Speaker 1: actually really lucky. They played the village when fifty million 21 00:01:00,800 --> 00:01:04,000 Speaker 1: dollars and it got split up among the towns seventy families. Yeah, so, 22 00:01:04,080 --> 00:01:06,760 Speaker 1: like there were these unemployed construction workers, are down on 23 00:01:06,800 --> 00:01:09,839 Speaker 1: their luck farmers, and they all walked away like millionaires 24 00:01:09,959 --> 00:01:14,040 Speaker 1: or at the very least hundred thousand rs. But everyone 25 00:01:14,400 --> 00:01:17,600 Speaker 1: except one guy, that is. And he was this Greek 26 00:01:17,640 --> 00:01:19,959 Speaker 1: gentleman who was down on his luck. He he'd moved 27 00:01:19,959 --> 00:01:22,720 Speaker 1: to the town for a woman and they'd just broken up, 28 00:01:23,160 --> 00:01:26,160 Speaker 1: and I guess he just wasn't interested in playing and 29 00:01:26,360 --> 00:01:28,760 Speaker 1: losing money, So so he didn't get to cash in. 30 00:01:29,200 --> 00:01:31,800 Speaker 1: Oh man, what a bumber. So he's the only one 31 00:01:31,840 --> 00:01:35,000 Speaker 1: who didn't participate. Yeah, I mean, things ended up kind 32 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:36,640 Speaker 1: of all right for him. Like he'd been trying to 33 00:01:36,680 --> 00:01:39,080 Speaker 1: sell his barn there and before the lottery, no one 34 00:01:39,160 --> 00:01:42,240 Speaker 1: had money to buy it. But once they did, suddenly 35 00:01:42,319 --> 00:01:46,440 Speaker 1: everyone was clamboring to purchase his barn, so he ended 36 00:01:46,520 --> 00:01:48,600 Speaker 1: up with a real estate deal. But today's show is 37 00:01:48,640 --> 00:01:51,720 Speaker 1: all about the lottery. How does statisticians out fox the system? 38 00:01:51,800 --> 00:01:54,360 Speaker 1: And why should you care if you find Herbert Hoover 39 00:01:54,440 --> 00:02:17,640 Speaker 1: on your lotto ticket? So let's dive in. Hey, their 40 00:02:17,680 --> 00:02:20,480 Speaker 1: podcast listeners, welcome to part time genius. I'm Will Pearson 41 00:02:20,520 --> 00:02:22,720 Speaker 1: and as always I'm joined by my good friend Mangesh 42 00:02:22,720 --> 00:02:25,160 Speaker 1: Ticketer and on the other side of the soundproof glass, 43 00:02:25,240 --> 00:02:28,400 Speaker 1: hunched over the fattest stack of Georgia Lotto scratchers I 44 00:02:28,440 --> 00:02:30,400 Speaker 1: think I've ever seen. I feel like he might have 45 00:02:30,480 --> 00:02:33,120 Speaker 1: bought all of them, Mango. But that's our friend and 46 00:02:33,200 --> 00:02:35,680 Speaker 1: producer Tristan McNeil. You know the other thing I've noticed, 47 00:02:35,960 --> 00:02:38,400 Speaker 1: this guy loves scratching these things, Mango. Have you been 48 00:02:38,440 --> 00:02:40,880 Speaker 1: watching him over here? Yeah, he actually is using this 49 00:02:40,960 --> 00:02:43,920 Speaker 1: special scratch off tool. It's shaped like a little ice craper, 50 00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:45,840 Speaker 1: but it goes on your key ring. I think he 51 00:02:45,880 --> 00:02:48,400 Speaker 1: got it off, Etsy, but I think he has it 52 00:02:48,560 --> 00:02:51,560 Speaker 1: just in case of a lot of emergencies. Well, you 53 00:02:51,639 --> 00:02:53,679 Speaker 1: never know what's going to happen, and I do wish 54 00:02:53,720 --> 00:02:56,600 Speaker 1: you luck, Tristan. But the truth is, winning the lottery 55 00:02:56,760 --> 00:03:00,280 Speaker 1: is a universally accepted long shot, like it's right up 56 00:03:00,320 --> 00:03:02,920 Speaker 1: there with being struck by lightning or crushed by a meteor, 57 00:03:03,400 --> 00:03:05,360 Speaker 1: except in the case of winning the lotto, your odds 58 00:03:05,400 --> 00:03:08,920 Speaker 1: are actually much much worse, you know. Yet despite that, 59 00:03:09,080 --> 00:03:13,240 Speaker 1: despite knowing, the odds are ridiculously long millions of people 60 00:03:13,240 --> 00:03:15,840 Speaker 1: around the world will still pony up for lotteries every 61 00:03:15,880 --> 00:03:18,280 Speaker 1: single year. So with that in mind, we thought it'd 62 00:03:18,320 --> 00:03:21,680 Speaker 1: be interesting to explore the psychology behind why people play 63 00:03:21,720 --> 00:03:25,840 Speaker 1: the lottery, including how playing changes lives. Plus along the way, 64 00:03:25,880 --> 00:03:28,399 Speaker 1: we'll check out the stories of a few enterprising gamblers 65 00:03:28,400 --> 00:03:30,960 Speaker 1: who found pretty clever ways to game the system and 66 00:03:31,040 --> 00:03:33,760 Speaker 1: beat those odds. But before we get to that, I 67 00:03:33,800 --> 00:03:35,880 Speaker 1: know you did some digging this week into the history 68 00:03:35,920 --> 00:03:38,320 Speaker 1: of lottery, so can you fill us in just a 69 00:03:38,360 --> 00:03:40,880 Speaker 1: little bit on that before we get to anything else. Yeah, So, 70 00:03:41,080 --> 00:03:44,240 Speaker 1: what's crazy is that lotteries are basically as old as arithmetic, 71 00:03:44,520 --> 00:03:47,000 Speaker 1: and you can actually find stories of lotteries in the Bible. 72 00:03:47,560 --> 00:03:50,080 Speaker 1: In fact, the first lotteries weren't really about winning prize 73 00:03:50,080 --> 00:03:52,960 Speaker 1: money like in the Old Testament. There are all these 74 00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:56,680 Speaker 1: references to land lotteries, and Moses actually used one to 75 00:03:56,680 --> 00:03:59,120 Speaker 1: divvy up portions of the promised land along the Jordan River. 76 00:03:59,640 --> 00:04:03,040 Speaker 1: Skulls think this worked similar to how we play powerball, 77 00:04:03,320 --> 00:04:05,200 Speaker 1: Like the tribes of Israel would have each taken a 78 00:04:05,280 --> 00:04:07,920 Speaker 1: differently shaped or marked stone and dropped it into a 79 00:04:07,920 --> 00:04:10,000 Speaker 1: clay pot or maybe wrapped it up in a piece 80 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:12,200 Speaker 1: of cloth and then they would have shaken up all 81 00:04:12,240 --> 00:04:14,720 Speaker 1: the stones and drawn one for each piece of land 82 00:04:14,720 --> 00:04:18,240 Speaker 1: on the docket. But ancient lotteries also had these other uses, 83 00:04:18,600 --> 00:04:22,159 Speaker 1: Like in the sixth century BC, Athenians chose most of 84 00:04:22,160 --> 00:04:25,400 Speaker 1: their government officials through sortition, which is actually a term 85 00:04:25,440 --> 00:04:28,679 Speaker 1: for when political representatives are selected at random by people 86 00:04:28,720 --> 00:04:32,480 Speaker 1: casting or drawing lots. Which seems like a weird fit 87 00:04:32,600 --> 00:04:34,720 Speaker 1: for that to have been in in Athens, I mean, 88 00:04:34,760 --> 00:04:38,640 Speaker 1: like what it wasn't Athens like the birthplace of democracy? Yeah, 89 00:04:38,680 --> 00:04:41,119 Speaker 1: And and that's actually the thing, Like the Athenians actually 90 00:04:41,240 --> 00:04:45,160 Speaker 1: viewed the lottery as more democratic than elections, and they're 91 00:04:45,200 --> 00:04:48,320 Speaker 1: thinking was that, you know, politicians or wealthy citizens could 92 00:04:48,360 --> 00:04:51,800 Speaker 1: easily rig the outcomes of elections, and to them, sortitians 93 00:04:51,800 --> 00:04:54,640 Speaker 1: just seemed like the safer option. So while Athens did 94 00:04:54,680 --> 00:04:56,919 Speaker 1: hold elections for a few positions, the bulk of the 95 00:04:56,920 --> 00:04:59,720 Speaker 1: appointments were simply left to chance. And the way it 96 00:04:59,760 --> 00:05:02,280 Speaker 1: work was that any freeman over the age of eighteen 97 00:05:02,360 --> 00:05:05,000 Speaker 1: was entered into a lottery, and if their name was drawn, 98 00:05:05,040 --> 00:05:07,160 Speaker 1: they would either be assigned a term as a juror 99 00:05:07,320 --> 00:05:10,800 Speaker 1: or as a member of the Citizen Council. I'm curious about, like, 100 00:05:10,839 --> 00:05:13,440 Speaker 1: how exactly did they run this lottery. It sounds like 101 00:05:13,440 --> 00:05:15,760 Speaker 1: they were trying to sort through and pick from a 102 00:05:15,839 --> 00:05:19,400 Speaker 1: lot of people, right, Yeah, And it wasn't done powerball style. 103 00:05:19,440 --> 00:05:23,200 Speaker 1: They actually had a special device called Claritarian. It's to 104 00:05:23,520 --> 00:05:26,000 Speaker 1: help ensure that the draws were as random as possible. 105 00:05:26,560 --> 00:05:30,479 Speaker 1: And it was basically this massive stone slab and it 106 00:05:30,560 --> 00:05:33,840 Speaker 1: had these tiny slots in it for putting tokens in, 107 00:05:34,160 --> 00:05:36,719 Speaker 1: and each token identified a different person in the lottery. 108 00:05:36,960 --> 00:05:39,719 Speaker 1: And then they had this long tube connected to the 109 00:05:39,760 --> 00:05:42,440 Speaker 1: side of the slab, and when officials poured a bunch 110 00:05:42,440 --> 00:05:44,400 Speaker 1: of black and white pebbles into the tube, I mean, 111 00:05:44,400 --> 00:05:47,359 Speaker 1: this is ingenious. The pebbles would just scatter across the 112 00:05:47,400 --> 00:05:50,760 Speaker 1: slab and land on different tokens, and that indicated who 113 00:05:50,839 --> 00:05:53,599 Speaker 1: would receive positions and who would be dismissed. And I 114 00:05:53,600 --> 00:05:55,040 Speaker 1: don't know, it kind of feels like something out of 115 00:05:55,080 --> 00:05:59,039 Speaker 1: the Flintstones Prices. Right. That's pretty great. Yeah, Actually, lotteries 116 00:05:59,040 --> 00:06:01,320 Speaker 1: are so much more on when they include these weird 117 00:06:01,360 --> 00:06:05,719 Speaker 1: gadgets or honestly, these like overly complicated systems for choosing 118 00:06:05,720 --> 00:06:08,680 Speaker 1: their winners and just in doing your other digging, did 119 00:06:08,680 --> 00:06:13,159 Speaker 1: you find any other early examples of of weirdness like this? Yeah? 120 00:06:13,200 --> 00:06:15,320 Speaker 1: I mean, I think you would like the lottery style 121 00:06:15,360 --> 00:06:17,680 Speaker 1: game that they played in China during the Han dynasty. 122 00:06:17,839 --> 00:06:20,919 Speaker 1: It was typically played on I guess a white ticket 123 00:06:21,240 --> 00:06:24,000 Speaker 1: and players would select like a series of numbers of characters, 124 00:06:24,040 --> 00:06:26,720 Speaker 1: and if their picks were chosen in the random drawing, 125 00:06:26,760 --> 00:06:30,400 Speaker 1: then they'd be senterprize. But this is where it gets special, right, 126 00:06:30,480 --> 00:06:33,320 Speaker 1: because how do you communicate the winning numbers when all 127 00:06:33,360 --> 00:06:36,120 Speaker 1: your players are spread out across a bunch of rural villages? 128 00:06:36,320 --> 00:06:39,799 Speaker 1: All right, well we're talking ancient China, so I'm gonna 129 00:06:39,839 --> 00:06:42,640 Speaker 1: go with I don't know, like a fireworks display or something. 130 00:06:42,839 --> 00:06:45,000 Speaker 1: I mean, that would be so fun, right to watch 131 00:06:45,000 --> 00:06:48,320 Speaker 1: these fireworks sort of reveal the answers. But fireworks were 132 00:06:48,320 --> 00:06:52,080 Speaker 1: still a few centuries away at this point, so instead, 133 00:06:52,320 --> 00:06:55,919 Speaker 1: these Chinese governments used birds to deliver the results to villages, 134 00:06:56,240 --> 00:06:58,360 Speaker 1: Like they had a whole fleet of carrier pigeons that 135 00:06:58,400 --> 00:07:01,360 Speaker 1: would carry the results from village to village, and then 136 00:07:01,440 --> 00:07:04,279 Speaker 1: they'd also collect the winning tickets along the way. And 137 00:07:04,400 --> 00:07:06,320 Speaker 1: in fact, this is actually where the game got its 138 00:07:06,360 --> 00:07:10,000 Speaker 1: original name. Bige Po. I know I'm pronouncing that wrong, 139 00:07:10,040 --> 00:07:14,560 Speaker 1: but roughly translated, it's called white Pigeon Ticket. I mean 140 00:07:14,600 --> 00:07:16,840 Speaker 1: that's pretty cool. So do people still play this white 141 00:07:16,840 --> 00:07:20,080 Speaker 1: pigeon ticket game today? They do, except now the game 142 00:07:20,160 --> 00:07:23,360 Speaker 1: has been rebranded as Keno. They've I guess stripped the 143 00:07:23,360 --> 00:07:25,440 Speaker 1: pigeons out of the game, which feels like a major 144 00:07:25,600 --> 00:07:31,400 Speaker 1: loss to me. But Keino is still a huge money 145 00:07:31,440 --> 00:07:34,360 Speaker 1: maker for Xino's. Even two thousand years ago, the game 146 00:07:34,400 --> 00:07:37,760 Speaker 1: was this big financial windfall for China. It was supposedly 147 00:07:37,800 --> 00:07:41,640 Speaker 1: invented by a warlord who's named Chung Lung. He'd been 148 00:07:41,880 --> 00:07:43,880 Speaker 1: looking for a way to get citizens to help fund 149 00:07:43,920 --> 00:07:46,760 Speaker 1: his army, and selling those white pigeon tickets proved a 150 00:07:46,800 --> 00:07:49,160 Speaker 1: great way to do just that. Pretty soon the game 151 00:07:49,200 --> 00:07:51,240 Speaker 1: was being used to fund not just the military, but 152 00:07:51,400 --> 00:07:55,080 Speaker 1: all sorts of other public works projects, and in fact, 153 00:07:55,200 --> 00:07:57,440 Speaker 1: one version of the game supposedly helped pay for the 154 00:07:57,440 --> 00:07:59,880 Speaker 1: Great Wall of China. You know, that was one of 155 00:07:59,880 --> 00:08:02,520 Speaker 1: the surprising things as we were doing our research for 156 00:08:02,520 --> 00:08:05,880 Speaker 1: this week, was realizing how many of these huge projects 157 00:08:05,920 --> 00:08:09,280 Speaker 1: were funded by lotteries. I was actually reading just recently 158 00:08:09,280 --> 00:08:12,880 Speaker 1: about colonial America and that it was largely built using 159 00:08:12,920 --> 00:08:16,520 Speaker 1: revenue from lotteries. Like apparently, lotteries had made their way 160 00:08:16,560 --> 00:08:18,800 Speaker 1: to America's shores. I think it was back in the 161 00:08:18,840 --> 00:08:21,840 Speaker 1: sixteenth century. And this was really around the same time 162 00:08:21,840 --> 00:08:24,080 Speaker 1: that they were catching on in Europe. So I guess 163 00:08:24,080 --> 00:08:27,400 Speaker 1: in places like Italy and France and England they all 164 00:08:27,480 --> 00:08:30,120 Speaker 1: borrowed a page from China's playbook, because you know, they 165 00:08:30,200 --> 00:08:32,720 Speaker 1: realized that lotteries were a smart way to raise money 166 00:08:32,760 --> 00:08:36,000 Speaker 1: for these various civic projects. And so it's kind of 167 00:08:36,000 --> 00:08:39,280 Speaker 1: crazy how early it was being used in America too. 168 00:08:39,640 --> 00:08:42,360 Speaker 1: You look back around sixteen twelve, you had the Virginia 169 00:08:42,400 --> 00:08:45,360 Speaker 1: Company of London actually held a lottery to support the 170 00:08:45,360 --> 00:08:48,760 Speaker 1: struggling Jamestown Colony and and really used it to save 171 00:08:48,800 --> 00:08:51,840 Speaker 1: the settlers there from starvation. But it was used in 172 00:08:51,840 --> 00:08:55,240 Speaker 1: these other pittal moments to like, you know, seventeen seventy six, 173 00:08:55,280 --> 00:08:58,240 Speaker 1: you had the Constitutional Congress holding a lottery to finance 174 00:08:58,320 --> 00:09:01,840 Speaker 1: soldiers for the Revolutionary Or. And then even after the 175 00:09:01,880 --> 00:09:04,760 Speaker 1: war was one, the New States relied on these lotteries 176 00:09:04,760 --> 00:09:07,880 Speaker 1: for much more of their revenue. And you know, after all, 177 00:09:07,960 --> 00:09:10,280 Speaker 1: unfair taxation had been a big part of the war 178 00:09:10,400 --> 00:09:13,040 Speaker 1: so you can see why this alternative way to raise 179 00:09:13,080 --> 00:09:16,280 Speaker 1: money was so appealing to politicians. It was, you know, 180 00:09:16,360 --> 00:09:19,400 Speaker 1: just so much easier than creating a new tax. I mean, 181 00:09:19,640 --> 00:09:22,280 Speaker 1: it's funny because people often refer to the lottery as 182 00:09:22,640 --> 00:09:25,280 Speaker 1: I don't know, like like a voluntary tax. Yeah, and 183 00:09:25,320 --> 00:09:27,479 Speaker 1: you know, that's actually how one of the founding fathers 184 00:09:27,520 --> 00:09:30,960 Speaker 1: felt about lotteries too. And I'm talking about Thomas Jefferson here, 185 00:09:30,960 --> 00:09:32,880 Speaker 1: and he wrote a good bit about it. So once 186 00:09:32,920 --> 00:09:35,560 Speaker 1: he wrote about it, he said, um, far from being immoral, 187 00:09:35,679 --> 00:09:39,160 Speaker 1: they were indispensable to the existence of man. Their attacks 188 00:09:39,200 --> 00:09:42,480 Speaker 1: laid on the willing only. Of course, Jefferson was more 189 00:09:42,559 --> 00:09:44,600 Speaker 1: than a little bit biased in this situation. I mean 190 00:09:44,640 --> 00:09:46,720 Speaker 1: that quote comes from a letter that he was writing 191 00:09:46,720 --> 00:09:49,559 Speaker 1: to the Virginia legislature. And he was writing this because 192 00:09:49,559 --> 00:09:52,360 Speaker 1: he was looking for permission to hold his own lottery. 193 00:09:52,440 --> 00:09:55,240 Speaker 1: And I was actually looking into why he was doing this, 194 00:09:55,640 --> 00:09:57,760 Speaker 1: and the whole reason he wanted to do it was 195 00:09:57,800 --> 00:09:59,959 Speaker 1: to pay off some of his debts. It's pretty pretty fun. 196 00:10:00,320 --> 00:10:02,839 Speaker 1: That's pretty amazing. Yeah, But you know what's weird is 197 00:10:02,880 --> 00:10:06,160 Speaker 1: that there's this whole idea that lotteries are really kind 198 00:10:06,160 --> 00:10:09,640 Speaker 1: of this voluntary tax, right, like, it's it's only attacks 199 00:10:09,679 --> 00:10:12,679 Speaker 1: if you're willing to buy in. But there's actually pretty 200 00:10:12,720 --> 00:10:15,880 Speaker 1: strong evidence that suggests that long time lotto players are 201 00:10:15,960 --> 00:10:18,960 Speaker 1: induced to play a game that maybe they otherwise wouldn't, 202 00:10:19,320 --> 00:10:21,520 Speaker 1: so explain that, Like, what do you mean by that? 203 00:10:21,600 --> 00:10:23,439 Speaker 1: All right, well, it might be helpful just to give 204 00:10:23,440 --> 00:10:26,199 Speaker 1: a little bit of background on who's playing the lottery. 205 00:10:26,280 --> 00:10:28,880 Speaker 1: So I was looking at this information from Gallop and 206 00:10:29,320 --> 00:10:31,760 Speaker 1: it was showing that nearly half of all US adults 207 00:10:31,760 --> 00:10:34,360 Speaker 1: have played a state lottery at least once in their lives. 208 00:10:34,440 --> 00:10:37,000 Speaker 1: That's not that surprising. But then if you look a 209 00:10:37,000 --> 00:10:40,120 Speaker 1: little bit closer, the vast majority of those tickets are 210 00:10:40,120 --> 00:10:43,640 Speaker 1: bought by just twenty of the population, and as you 211 00:10:43,720 --> 00:10:45,960 Speaker 1: might guess, most of those players who make up that 212 00:10:47,120 --> 00:10:50,079 Speaker 1: are actually among the poorest in the country. In fact, 213 00:10:50,120 --> 00:10:52,400 Speaker 1: according to a study from Duke this was done back 214 00:10:52,400 --> 00:10:56,000 Speaker 1: in the nineteen eighties, the poorest third of American households 215 00:10:56,000 --> 00:10:58,880 Speaker 1: by roughly half of the lottery tickets that are sold. 216 00:10:59,640 --> 00:11:02,520 Speaker 1: But there's more recent data, and this is what's even 217 00:11:02,520 --> 00:11:05,960 Speaker 1: more disturbing, is that on average, households that make less 218 00:11:05,960 --> 00:11:09,400 Speaker 1: than twelve thousand dollars a year, spent a full five 219 00:11:09,520 --> 00:11:12,480 Speaker 1: pc of their incomes on lotteries, five percent of their 220 00:11:12,480 --> 00:11:15,360 Speaker 1: incomes on matters. It's it's it's pretty tragic to see that. 221 00:11:15,360 --> 00:11:18,280 Speaker 1: That's horrifying. So, I mean, there's so many things that 222 00:11:18,400 --> 00:11:22,120 Speaker 1: work against the poor. Like I was reading about I'm 223 00:11:22,200 --> 00:11:25,440 Speaker 1: pretty sure it was Chicago, but it was about parking tickets, 224 00:11:25,640 --> 00:11:27,560 Speaker 1: where if you get a ticket and you don't pay 225 00:11:27,559 --> 00:11:31,400 Speaker 1: in time, the price automatically skyrockets, and if you can't 226 00:11:31,400 --> 00:11:33,960 Speaker 1: pay that, they boot your car or take away your license, 227 00:11:34,360 --> 00:11:36,360 Speaker 1: which then makes it harder to get to your job 228 00:11:36,400 --> 00:11:39,160 Speaker 1: to pay that ticket. And that's actually been driving a 229 00:11:39,200 --> 00:11:42,079 Speaker 1: ton of bankruptcies in the city. I mean, I guess 230 00:11:42,440 --> 00:11:45,120 Speaker 1: if you're desperate and you're looking for a fast fix 231 00:11:45,160 --> 00:11:48,520 Speaker 1: for your financial troubles, like playing the lottery seems like 232 00:11:48,600 --> 00:11:51,319 Speaker 1: the quickest way out. At least that's how I think 233 00:11:51,320 --> 00:11:53,800 Speaker 1: about it. But it sounds like you're saying it's more 234 00:11:53,800 --> 00:11:56,600 Speaker 1: than that, Like these people are actually being misled or 235 00:11:56,679 --> 00:11:59,839 Speaker 1: maybe duped or something. Yeah, and you know this, this 236 00:12:00,000 --> 00:12:02,800 Speaker 1: actually goes back to a two thousand eight study. You 237 00:12:02,800 --> 00:12:04,720 Speaker 1: like the number of studies I'm quoting today. I'm just 238 00:12:05,000 --> 00:12:07,800 Speaker 1: grief on all these studies that came armed with them. 239 00:12:07,800 --> 00:12:10,600 Speaker 1: But this was a group of behavioral economists there at 240 00:12:10,600 --> 00:12:13,520 Speaker 1: Carnegie Mellon, and so what they were looking to is, 241 00:12:13,520 --> 00:12:15,920 Speaker 1: is it really like the reason why poor people are 242 00:12:15,960 --> 00:12:18,240 Speaker 1: so much more likely to play the lottery than those 243 00:12:18,280 --> 00:12:20,840 Speaker 1: who are better off. And what they found was that 244 00:12:20,880 --> 00:12:23,240 Speaker 1: a lot of the desire that drives these low income 245 00:12:23,280 --> 00:12:26,440 Speaker 1: players isn't so much from being poor as it is 246 00:12:26,480 --> 00:12:29,560 Speaker 1: from feeling poor. So here's how the studies authors broke 247 00:12:29,600 --> 00:12:33,080 Speaker 1: down their findings. It says um an experiment one, participants 248 00:12:33,080 --> 00:12:35,520 Speaker 1: were more likely to purchase lottery tickets when they were 249 00:12:35,520 --> 00:12:38,560 Speaker 1: primed to perceive that their own income was low relative 250 00:12:38,600 --> 00:12:42,880 Speaker 1: to the implicit standard. And then an experiment to, participants 251 00:12:42,920 --> 00:12:46,400 Speaker 1: purchased more lottery tickets when they considered non lottery situations 252 00:12:46,440 --> 00:12:51,040 Speaker 1: in which rich people or poor people receive advantages, implicitly 253 00:12:51,120 --> 00:12:53,960 Speaker 1: highlighting the fact that everyone has an equal chance of 254 00:12:54,040 --> 00:12:58,000 Speaker 1: winning the lottery. So basically, when you make people feel poor, 255 00:12:58,120 --> 00:13:01,320 Speaker 1: they played a lottery more, and when they feel like 256 00:13:01,400 --> 00:13:04,360 Speaker 1: it's equal like then then they want to put money 257 00:13:04,400 --> 00:13:05,800 Speaker 1: on it because they feel like it's a fair game. 258 00:13:05,840 --> 00:13:08,439 Speaker 1: I mean, it's kind of heartbreaking when you think about 259 00:13:08,480 --> 00:13:12,160 Speaker 1: how low their chances of winning actually are though, right, Yeah, 260 00:13:12,200 --> 00:13:14,840 Speaker 1: And I actually found yet another study, and this comes 261 00:13:14,840 --> 00:13:19,000 Speaker 1: from the the late age. Can have studies, I'm coming with, 262 00:13:19,080 --> 00:13:21,320 Speaker 1: so many of them have almost as many studies as 263 00:13:21,360 --> 00:13:25,320 Speaker 1: Tristan has scratch off tickets. Not quite. This one's a 264 00:13:25,320 --> 00:13:27,800 Speaker 1: good one too. So this was also in the late eighties, 265 00:13:27,880 --> 00:13:31,320 Speaker 1: and the researchers discovered that lottery ticket sales in California, 266 00:13:31,640 --> 00:13:35,000 Speaker 1: they rise along with the poverty rate, but movie ticket 267 00:13:35,040 --> 00:13:37,680 Speaker 1: sales actually don't. And so what that says is that 268 00:13:37,720 --> 00:13:40,320 Speaker 1: people don't just play the lottery for fun. They're they're 269 00:13:40,360 --> 00:13:43,160 Speaker 1: playing it out of desperation. So, you know, all too 270 00:13:43,160 --> 00:13:45,560 Speaker 1: often the lottery becomes a way for states to shift 271 00:13:45,600 --> 00:13:48,200 Speaker 1: the cost of government services from you know, from the 272 00:13:48,200 --> 00:13:53,560 Speaker 1: wealthier citizens onto honestly like the most hopeless ones. Alright, Well, 273 00:13:53,760 --> 00:13:56,720 Speaker 1: now that you've got us all righteously indignant about the lottery, 274 00:13:56,920 --> 00:13:59,920 Speaker 1: here's what I want to talk about. Nerdy geniuses who 275 00:14:00,040 --> 00:14:02,439 Speaker 1: out fox the system and made a lot of pay 276 00:14:02,480 --> 00:14:05,720 Speaker 1: out big time. All right, that sounds like a good idea. 277 00:14:05,760 --> 00:14:18,319 Speaker 1: But before we do that, let's take a quick break. 278 00:14:20,800 --> 00:14:22,600 Speaker 1: If you're listening to part time genius, so we're talking 279 00:14:22,600 --> 00:14:26,040 Speaker 1: about some of the most brazen lottery scams in history. Alright, Mago, 280 00:14:26,200 --> 00:14:28,760 Speaker 1: So let's live vicariously for a minute through some of 281 00:14:28,800 --> 00:14:31,800 Speaker 1: these Loto legends. So who do you want to talk 282 00:14:31,800 --> 00:14:35,400 Speaker 1: about first? Okay, So first I'm gonna tell you about 283 00:14:35,440 --> 00:14:39,360 Speaker 1: Moen Shivasa. He is this m I T Train statistician 284 00:14:39,440 --> 00:14:42,080 Speaker 1: who actually found a flaw in a certain scratch off 285 00:14:42,160 --> 00:14:45,720 Speaker 1: game from the Ontario Lottery and this effectively allowed him 286 00:14:45,760 --> 00:14:49,960 Speaker 1: to predict winning cards about nine of the time. Oh wow, 287 00:14:49,960 --> 00:14:53,440 Speaker 1: So what's his story? So Moen wasn't really interested in 288 00:14:53,480 --> 00:14:56,680 Speaker 1: playing a lot of much less exploiting it. But one day, 289 00:14:56,720 --> 00:14:58,760 Speaker 1: and this was back in two thousand three, he found 290 00:14:58,800 --> 00:15:00,720 Speaker 1: some old scratch offs on his desks that have been 291 00:15:00,720 --> 00:15:02,920 Speaker 1: part of this gag gift I guess someone give him, 292 00:15:03,000 --> 00:15:05,640 Speaker 1: and on a whim, he scratched off one and one 293 00:15:05,760 --> 00:15:08,920 Speaker 1: three dollars. So he's walking to cash in his ticket 294 00:15:08,960 --> 00:15:10,840 Speaker 1: as lunch break, and as he's thinking about it, he 295 00:15:10,840 --> 00:15:13,280 Speaker 1: started thinking about how scratch offs must be made right, 296 00:15:13,480 --> 00:15:15,880 Speaker 1: and it dawned on him that the tickets are obviously 297 00:15:16,080 --> 00:15:19,040 Speaker 1: mass produced, which means that a computer program must be 298 00:15:19,080 --> 00:15:21,440 Speaker 1: involved in laying out the numbers on each ticket. Yeah, 299 00:15:21,480 --> 00:15:23,600 Speaker 1: I get that, But it's all random, isn't it. Like 300 00:15:23,640 --> 00:15:26,520 Speaker 1: that's probably another reason ticket makers use a computer, because 301 00:15:26,520 --> 00:15:29,120 Speaker 1: there's no way a human could actually design that many 302 00:15:29,160 --> 00:15:33,160 Speaker 1: tickets and still keep the numbering completely random, right, Sure, 303 00:15:33,280 --> 00:15:36,320 Speaker 1: but Moon realized that the computers can't be generating truly 304 00:15:36,400 --> 00:15:39,080 Speaker 1: random numbers either, Like if they were, that mean the 305 00:15:39,080 --> 00:15:41,560 Speaker 1: lottery company had no control over the actual number of 306 00:15:41,560 --> 00:15:44,840 Speaker 1: winning tickets produced. And if that were the case, it 307 00:15:44,880 --> 00:15:47,480 Speaker 1: would mean that some ticket packets would have very few 308 00:15:47,480 --> 00:15:50,600 Speaker 1: winners or maybe even none at all. And obviously it 309 00:15:50,600 --> 00:15:53,040 Speaker 1: would be tough to get retailers and also players to 310 00:15:53,120 --> 00:15:55,360 Speaker 1: keep buying those tickets if so many of those cards 311 00:15:55,360 --> 00:15:58,080 Speaker 1: were duds. Okay, that that that makes sense. So if 312 00:15:58,640 --> 00:16:01,520 Speaker 1: the tickets like they kind of have to have the 313 00:16:01,560 --> 00:16:05,760 Speaker 1: illusion of randomness while actually being incredibly ordered beneath the surface, 314 00:16:05,800 --> 00:16:09,040 Speaker 1: is that what you're saying exactly? And once Moman figured 315 00:16:09,080 --> 00:16:11,720 Speaker 1: this out, he decided to try and crack the algorithm 316 00:16:11,760 --> 00:16:14,520 Speaker 1: that generated all those numbers, you know, just for fun, 317 00:16:14,640 --> 00:16:16,920 Speaker 1: because he was from M I. T In a statistician, 318 00:16:17,560 --> 00:16:20,440 Speaker 1: so he sat down to study this one tic tac 319 00:16:20,520 --> 00:16:23,200 Speaker 1: toe scratch off game he'd been playing, and after just 320 00:16:23,240 --> 00:16:25,720 Speaker 1: a few hours he discovered that the visible numbers on 321 00:16:25,760 --> 00:16:29,360 Speaker 1: the ticket actually dictated which digits were hidden under the 322 00:16:29,440 --> 00:16:33,640 Speaker 1: latex coding. So basically, every ticket had like eight tic 323 00:16:33,680 --> 00:16:36,600 Speaker 1: tac toe game boards on it, and each board would 324 00:16:36,640 --> 00:16:39,400 Speaker 1: contain some visible numbers. But if you look to see 325 00:16:39,400 --> 00:16:42,320 Speaker 1: how many times those numbers repeated on the card, and 326 00:16:42,440 --> 00:16:44,600 Speaker 1: mostly it was if a number was a singleton and 327 00:16:44,680 --> 00:16:47,960 Speaker 1: not repeating, you could actually tell which cards were winners, 328 00:16:48,320 --> 00:16:50,920 Speaker 1: and the prize money could be anywhere between three dollars 329 00:16:51,000 --> 00:16:54,240 Speaker 1: and fifty dollars. Okay, all right, I mean, I know 330 00:16:54,320 --> 00:16:57,040 Speaker 1: it all sounds complicated, But what I find so fascinating 331 00:16:57,080 --> 00:16:59,800 Speaker 1: about this is he's just saying momen basically found a 332 00:16:59,840 --> 00:17:02,440 Speaker 1: way to determine if a ticket was a winner without 333 00:17:02,480 --> 00:17:05,480 Speaker 1: having to scratch anything off. And and you're saying he 334 00:17:05,520 --> 00:17:07,880 Speaker 1: got this trick to work like nine of the time, 335 00:17:07,920 --> 00:17:11,280 Speaker 1: that must have made a fortune. So that's the weirdest part. 336 00:17:11,400 --> 00:17:13,719 Speaker 1: Moon really did this for the love of math and 337 00:17:13,880 --> 00:17:17,280 Speaker 1: not money. In fact, once he was sure his technique worked, 338 00:17:17,480 --> 00:17:21,160 Speaker 1: he actually contacted the Ontario Lottery Gaming Corporation and told 339 00:17:21,240 --> 00:17:23,919 Speaker 1: him about the flaw he'd found and It's funny because 340 00:17:24,000 --> 00:17:27,320 Speaker 1: he told NPR that he was playing telephone tag with lottery, 341 00:17:27,440 --> 00:17:29,240 Speaker 1: and when they finally got to talk to one another, 342 00:17:29,480 --> 00:17:31,960 Speaker 1: they kind of didn't believe him. So he sent them 343 00:17:31,960 --> 00:17:35,080 Speaker 1: twenty unscratched cards and separated them into what he thought 344 00:17:35,080 --> 00:17:37,800 Speaker 1: would be winning cards and duds. And when they scratched 345 00:17:37,800 --> 00:17:40,399 Speaker 1: them off and realized he predicted correctly, that's when they 346 00:17:40,400 --> 00:17:43,280 Speaker 1: called him back. Oh man, I bet he felt pretty awesome. 347 00:17:43,640 --> 00:17:46,639 Speaker 1: That's pretty wild. Yeah, I mean, he later discovered the 348 00:17:46,640 --> 00:17:49,439 Speaker 1: problem wasn't exclusive Ontario. I mean, it kind of makes sense, right. 349 00:17:49,560 --> 00:17:52,680 Speaker 1: It turned out the same trick was also being employed 350 00:17:52,680 --> 00:17:55,840 Speaker 1: in Colorado, though when he analyzed those cards he could 351 00:17:55,920 --> 00:17:58,800 Speaker 1: only figure them out with accuracy. I mean, that's still 352 00:17:58,840 --> 00:18:01,320 Speaker 1: pretty impressive. But I mean, you know, it's as nice 353 00:18:01,359 --> 00:18:04,240 Speaker 1: as it was for Owen to come clean about his discovery. 354 00:18:04,359 --> 00:18:06,639 Speaker 1: I feel like that's certainly not how most attempts to 355 00:18:06,680 --> 00:18:09,199 Speaker 1: game the lottery turnout. And I was just looking at 356 00:18:09,200 --> 00:18:11,200 Speaker 1: some other cases, you know, if you take the case 357 00:18:11,240 --> 00:18:14,360 Speaker 1: of Jerry and Marge Selby, for instance, And this comes 358 00:18:14,359 --> 00:18:17,000 Speaker 1: from this great story by Jason Fagoni and and we 359 00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:19,200 Speaker 1: actually had Jason on the program earlier. This year to 360 00:18:19,240 --> 00:18:21,560 Speaker 1: talk about his book. It was called The Woman Who 361 00:18:21,640 --> 00:18:24,000 Speaker 1: Smashed Codes. I mean, that was honestly one of my 362 00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:27,160 Speaker 1: favorite episodes. Is so fascinating, and my mom just bought 363 00:18:27,240 --> 00:18:30,159 Speaker 1: that book because she loved Jason so much. But to 364 00:18:30,320 --> 00:18:32,480 Speaker 1: tell me about the Selby's. All right, So they're from 365 00:18:32,480 --> 00:18:34,919 Speaker 1: Michigan and they were basically among the first players to 366 00:18:34,960 --> 00:18:36,760 Speaker 1: find a flaw in a state lottery game. The game 367 00:18:36,840 --> 00:18:39,800 Speaker 1: was called Windfall, and this was back in two thousand three, 368 00:18:39,840 --> 00:18:43,680 Speaker 1: and it came down to this unique quirk and windfalls rules, namely, 369 00:18:43,720 --> 00:18:46,520 Speaker 1: whenever the jackpot would rise to roughly two million dollars 370 00:18:46,600 --> 00:18:49,680 Speaker 1: or so without anybody winning it, the payoffs for smaller 371 00:18:49,720 --> 00:18:53,879 Speaker 1: prizes increased dramatically. So basically, if a player waited until 372 00:18:53,880 --> 00:18:57,040 Speaker 1: this so called rolldown period, which typically lasted for a 373 00:18:57,080 --> 00:19:00,000 Speaker 1: few days every three months or so, they would stay 374 00:19:00,000 --> 00:19:02,480 Speaker 1: and to win more than they lost. And of course 375 00:19:02,520 --> 00:19:04,760 Speaker 1: this is on average, and so if they were to 376 00:19:04,760 --> 00:19:08,000 Speaker 1: buy an especially high number of tickets during that rolldown, 377 00:19:08,080 --> 00:19:10,879 Speaker 1: say like you know, a hundred thousand dollars worth, then 378 00:19:10,920 --> 00:19:14,159 Speaker 1: they would be practically guaranteed to turn a ten to 379 00:19:14,240 --> 00:19:17,399 Speaker 1: fifteen percent profit. Okay, so the more tickets of player 380 00:19:17,400 --> 00:19:19,560 Speaker 1: buys during the special period, the more money they're kind 381 00:19:19,560 --> 00:19:22,400 Speaker 1: of a short to win. So I'm curious how many 382 00:19:22,400 --> 00:19:26,000 Speaker 1: tickets did Jerry and March go in on. It was unbelievable, 383 00:19:26,040 --> 00:19:28,840 Speaker 1: the number of tickets. I mean, they basically treated Windfall 384 00:19:28,960 --> 00:19:32,080 Speaker 1: like their retirement plan, and they played for the better 385 00:19:32,160 --> 00:19:35,120 Speaker 1: part of a decade. In fact, Michigan retired the game 386 00:19:35,160 --> 00:19:38,399 Speaker 1: only from Massachusetts to roll out their own versions soon after, 387 00:19:38,520 --> 00:19:41,639 Speaker 1: and so the Selby's actually took their ticket buying operation 388 00:19:41,840 --> 00:19:44,000 Speaker 1: on the road. What they would do is they just 389 00:19:44,080 --> 00:19:46,600 Speaker 1: pile into their truck, they drive the twelve hours or 390 00:19:46,640 --> 00:19:49,440 Speaker 1: so to Massachusetts, and then they'd set up shop in 391 00:19:49,520 --> 00:19:53,520 Speaker 1: two separate convenience stores, printing ream after ream of tickets 392 00:19:53,520 --> 00:19:57,520 Speaker 1: for honestly, for hours at a time. So I've been 393 00:19:57,560 --> 00:20:00,240 Speaker 1: stuck in bodegos behind people playing the lotto, and it's 394 00:20:00,359 --> 00:20:02,720 Speaker 1: so frustrating, Like you can be there for like ten 395 00:20:02,760 --> 00:20:05,120 Speaker 1: minutes or fifteen minutes. You can take forever when you're 396 00:20:05,119 --> 00:20:08,000 Speaker 1: in a rush. But how many tickets are we actually 397 00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:09,920 Speaker 1: talking about here? You are not going to believe this. 398 00:20:10,000 --> 00:20:11,919 Speaker 1: So at the height of their scheme, the couple was 399 00:20:11,960 --> 00:20:15,959 Speaker 1: spending over six hundred thousand dollars on a single play 400 00:20:16,040 --> 00:20:19,600 Speaker 1: of Windfall. Keep this in mind, we're talking two dollars 401 00:20:19,600 --> 00:20:21,440 Speaker 1: of pop here, so that means they had more than 402 00:20:21,560 --> 00:20:26,600 Speaker 1: three hundred thousand tickets that week. That's insane. So I'm 403 00:20:26,640 --> 00:20:28,840 Speaker 1: always nervous when I see people gambling and gambling with 404 00:20:28,880 --> 00:20:32,120 Speaker 1: such ridiculous amounts of money, like, I'm so afraid they're 405 00:20:32,119 --> 00:20:34,960 Speaker 1: gonna lose it. And you know, my favorite thing to 406 00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:36,560 Speaker 1: do in Las Vegas is to go up to an 407 00:20:36,560 --> 00:20:38,600 Speaker 1: a t M and act like I've one when it 408 00:20:38,640 --> 00:20:41,439 Speaker 1: spits out cash, because I do not want to get 409 00:20:41,520 --> 00:20:44,720 Speaker 1: ripped off five machines. But obviously these people are made 410 00:20:44,720 --> 00:20:46,680 Speaker 1: of much stronger stuff than I am. So how much 411 00:20:46,680 --> 00:20:50,119 Speaker 1: did they end up making? Well, the Selbies actually didn't 412 00:20:50,160 --> 00:20:52,879 Speaker 1: play alone, at least not the whole time. There was 413 00:20:52,960 --> 00:20:57,280 Speaker 1: one point where they started this company called GS Investment Strategies. 414 00:20:57,320 --> 00:20:59,080 Speaker 1: I love that that's the name of their company for 415 00:20:59,119 --> 00:21:02,159 Speaker 1: some reason, and Sting Firm, I know. So basically it 416 00:21:02,240 --> 00:21:05,080 Speaker 1: was a betting group that consisted of the Selby's and 417 00:21:05,080 --> 00:21:08,280 Speaker 1: their extended family and friends. And just looking at the 418 00:21:08,600 --> 00:21:10,800 Speaker 1: you know, the list of people in this it's pretty funny. 419 00:21:10,800 --> 00:21:15,040 Speaker 1: It included a state trooper, a parole officer, three lawyers, 420 00:21:15,080 --> 00:21:17,760 Speaker 1: among all these others that we're playing, and at their 421 00:21:17,800 --> 00:21:20,960 Speaker 1: final tally, they managed to get almost eight million dollars. 422 00:21:20,960 --> 00:21:23,960 Speaker 1: It was just shy of eight million dollars before taxes, 423 00:21:24,040 --> 00:21:26,159 Speaker 1: and of course all that was divvied up among the 424 00:21:26,200 --> 00:21:29,480 Speaker 1: company's twenty five players. So really not a bad hale 425 00:21:29,560 --> 00:21:32,160 Speaker 1: for nine years of printing out these slips of paper, 426 00:21:32,280 --> 00:21:34,840 Speaker 1: But it actually was a little bit short of what 427 00:21:34,880 --> 00:21:37,400 Speaker 1: this small group of M I T students managed to win. 428 00:21:37,480 --> 00:21:40,280 Speaker 1: And this was off the very same game. This was 429 00:21:40,320 --> 00:21:42,400 Speaker 1: between two thousand and four and two thousand and ten. 430 00:21:42,880 --> 00:21:45,240 Speaker 1: The students made actually just a little bit over eight 431 00:21:45,280 --> 00:21:48,320 Speaker 1: million dollars in profit. So I'm still kind of blown 432 00:21:48,320 --> 00:21:50,680 Speaker 1: away that this happened. I mean, like, why didn't the 433 00:21:50,720 --> 00:21:53,480 Speaker 1: lottery commissions of these states wise up to what was happening. 434 00:21:53,880 --> 00:21:56,199 Speaker 1: You've got these multiple groups of people pulling off the 435 00:21:56,200 --> 00:21:59,360 Speaker 1: same scheme for like a decade and obviously buying massive 436 00:21:59,400 --> 00:22:03,040 Speaker 1: amounts of tickets. Well, I mean, this may be the 437 00:22:03,119 --> 00:22:06,280 Speaker 1: weirdest part of all of this is that somebody did notice. 438 00:22:06,320 --> 00:22:08,679 Speaker 1: And this was in two thousand twelve. There was an 439 00:22:08,680 --> 00:22:12,520 Speaker 1: investigation into the Windfall Game, and and that investigation revealed 440 00:22:12,520 --> 00:22:15,359 Speaker 1: that the Massachusetts Lottery had known all about the m 441 00:22:15,440 --> 00:22:18,760 Speaker 1: I T students and the Selbys for years, but had 442 00:22:18,840 --> 00:22:22,959 Speaker 1: actually done nothing to stop them. Apparently, lottery officials had 443 00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:24,920 Speaker 1: been the rules so that the high stakes players could 444 00:22:24,960 --> 00:22:27,960 Speaker 1: buy hundreds of thousands of tickets because you know, the 445 00:22:28,080 --> 00:22:30,760 Speaker 1: added revenue and the success that brought to the lottery, 446 00:22:30,800 --> 00:22:32,840 Speaker 1: and of course by extension to the state, they just 447 00:22:32,880 --> 00:22:36,080 Speaker 1: considered it worth it. But you know, in the end, 448 00:22:36,200 --> 00:22:39,680 Speaker 1: even though none of this was technically illegal, the state Treasurer, 449 00:22:39,720 --> 00:22:43,280 Speaker 1: who oversees the lottery, they officially shut down the Windfall 450 00:22:43,400 --> 00:22:46,040 Speaker 1: game in two thousand twelve, and of course this put 451 00:22:46,080 --> 00:22:49,040 Speaker 1: an end to the player's long winning streak at that point. Yeah, 452 00:22:49,240 --> 00:22:52,000 Speaker 1: I mean, they made eight million dollars offense. It's not 453 00:22:52,119 --> 00:22:55,600 Speaker 1: that bad. It is staying that they figured this out, 454 00:22:56,000 --> 00:22:58,359 Speaker 1: But it also seems to suggest that, like once you 455 00:22:58,400 --> 00:23:01,240 Speaker 1: find a game that's beatable, you need lots of money 456 00:23:01,280 --> 00:23:04,359 Speaker 1: to win, right, Like these M I T students, the Celbes, 457 00:23:04,680 --> 00:23:07,000 Speaker 1: they all had the resources to buy up hundreds of 458 00:23:07,040 --> 00:23:10,000 Speaker 1: thousands of dollars worth of tickets, which is what allowed 459 00:23:10,040 --> 00:23:12,960 Speaker 1: them to win as often as they did. Meanwhile, you know, 460 00:23:13,040 --> 00:23:15,520 Speaker 1: the people who couldn't afford enough tickets to gain that 461 00:23:15,560 --> 00:23:19,440 Speaker 1: statistical advantage, they're kind of shut out. And not only that, 462 00:23:19,480 --> 00:23:21,919 Speaker 1: but it's really the poor folks money that's going to 463 00:23:21,960 --> 00:23:25,320 Speaker 1: all the payouts. You know that said, I mean, I 464 00:23:25,560 --> 00:23:27,760 Speaker 1: don't want to give the impression that lotteries are zero 465 00:23:27,880 --> 00:23:30,560 Speaker 1: sum game for society, Like like we were saying at 466 00:23:30,600 --> 00:23:32,679 Speaker 1: the top of the show. You know, countries have been 467 00:23:32,680 --> 00:23:36,000 Speaker 1: putting lottery revenue to good use for centuries, and that's 468 00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:39,920 Speaker 1: still true today. So even if you feel squeamish about 469 00:23:39,920 --> 00:23:42,560 Speaker 1: who these games might be targeting, like I do, it's 470 00:23:42,560 --> 00:23:44,600 Speaker 1: still worth taking a look at the benefits that come 471 00:23:44,640 --> 00:23:46,560 Speaker 1: from them. Yeah, I agree with that. But but before 472 00:23:46,560 --> 00:23:48,600 Speaker 1: we get to that, let's take one more quick break. 473 00:24:01,960 --> 00:24:05,159 Speaker 1: All right, Mango, so Cluisson, where exactly does all this 474 00:24:05,280 --> 00:24:08,960 Speaker 1: lottery money go? Well, first, let's clarify how much money 475 00:24:08,960 --> 00:24:11,399 Speaker 1: we're talking about here. So when you actually add up 476 00:24:11,440 --> 00:24:14,520 Speaker 1: all the revenue from the modern US lottery industry, all 477 00:24:14,560 --> 00:24:18,720 Speaker 1: the sales you know, from cash drawings, the instant win, scratchaws, 478 00:24:18,960 --> 00:24:22,399 Speaker 1: video lottery games, Kenno like, you wind up with a 479 00:24:22,480 --> 00:24:27,560 Speaker 1: yearly total of eighty billion dollars. That stunning, And and 480 00:24:27,600 --> 00:24:30,119 Speaker 1: just to put that in perspective, movie ticket sales in 481 00:24:30,160 --> 00:24:33,480 Speaker 1: the US add up to only about eleven billion dollars annually. 482 00:24:33,960 --> 00:24:36,760 Speaker 1: In fact, that eight billion is more than Americans spend 483 00:24:36,760 --> 00:24:39,040 Speaker 1: every year, not only on movie tickets, but also on 484 00:24:39,160 --> 00:24:43,640 Speaker 1: sports tickets, books, video games, music sales, all of that combined. 485 00:24:44,040 --> 00:24:46,960 Speaker 1: That's crazy, all right. So obviously we love to gamble, 486 00:24:47,000 --> 00:24:49,199 Speaker 1: and that must mean that we're getting something out of 487 00:24:49,200 --> 00:24:51,240 Speaker 1: the deal, right though, So how much of that eight 488 00:24:51,320 --> 00:24:54,920 Speaker 1: billion ends up in the player's pockets. It's way more 489 00:24:54,960 --> 00:24:57,199 Speaker 1: than you think. Like, I was actually surprised to hear this, 490 00:24:57,280 --> 00:25:00,560 Speaker 1: but over fifty billion of that to will goes to 491 00:25:00,640 --> 00:25:02,879 Speaker 1: players in the former prizes. Oh yeah, I wouldn't have 492 00:25:02,880 --> 00:25:05,560 Speaker 1: guessed that. Yeah, And then another eight billion is used 493 00:25:05,560 --> 00:25:08,280 Speaker 1: to cover the cost of the lotteries themselves, So like 494 00:25:08,320 --> 00:25:13,080 Speaker 1: this is the boring stuff like printing, advertising, design, employee salaries, 495 00:25:13,200 --> 00:25:17,080 Speaker 1: vendor fees. But the remaining twenty two billion, which you 496 00:25:17,119 --> 00:25:20,080 Speaker 1: know is still a ton of money, is funneled into 497 00:25:20,160 --> 00:25:23,359 Speaker 1: public programs, and that includes everything from education and land 498 00:25:23,400 --> 00:25:28,080 Speaker 1: conservation to senior assistance and even pension funds well, and 499 00:25:28,119 --> 00:25:30,960 Speaker 1: obviously different states will claim different amounts of that profit 500 00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:34,879 Speaker 1: depending on their individual sales numbers. But but it's up 501 00:25:34,920 --> 00:25:37,600 Speaker 1: to each state to decide what to do with their profits. Yeah, 502 00:25:37,680 --> 00:25:40,760 Speaker 1: that's right. So there are currently lotteries and forty seven 503 00:25:40,840 --> 00:25:44,200 Speaker 1: different U S jurisdictions, which includes forty four states plus 504 00:25:44,359 --> 00:25:48,280 Speaker 1: m d c Is on their Puerto Rico the virgin Islands, 505 00:25:48,320 --> 00:25:50,720 Speaker 1: and they each get to use their money for whatever 506 00:25:50,760 --> 00:25:54,159 Speaker 1: they want. So education budgets are probably the most popular choice. 507 00:25:54,400 --> 00:25:57,520 Speaker 1: Like the Virginia lottery for example, it actually puts all 508 00:25:57,560 --> 00:26:00,359 Speaker 1: of its profits into a cage to twelve education fund. 509 00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:04,080 Speaker 1: And last year our lottery right here in Georgia actually 510 00:26:04,119 --> 00:26:06,840 Speaker 1: gave out a billion dollars in profits to education programs 511 00:26:07,040 --> 00:26:09,040 Speaker 1: compared to the two point seven billion to gave out 512 00:26:09,040 --> 00:26:12,000 Speaker 1: in prizes to players. Wow. I I mean, you know, 513 00:26:12,080 --> 00:26:14,840 Speaker 1: there's no denying that state run lotteries can deliver pretty 514 00:26:14,880 --> 00:26:17,920 Speaker 1: big benefits to their citizens, at at least generally speaking. 515 00:26:17,960 --> 00:26:21,160 Speaker 1: And again, it's easy to see why most politicians would 516 00:26:21,200 --> 00:26:24,080 Speaker 1: want to keep that easy money flowing through their states. Sure, 517 00:26:24,240 --> 00:26:26,640 Speaker 1: But on a different note, one of the things that's 518 00:26:26,640 --> 00:26:29,399 Speaker 1: really fun to hear about is the individual lottery winners 519 00:26:29,440 --> 00:26:32,400 Speaker 1: who actually share their wealth. And I was reading about 520 00:26:32,400 --> 00:26:36,040 Speaker 1: this guy named John Coody who split a three million 521 00:26:36,040 --> 00:26:39,479 Speaker 1: dollar payout with six other I T specialists and this 522 00:26:39,560 --> 00:26:42,960 Speaker 1: was back in two thousand eleven. I mean, that sounds nice, 523 00:26:42,960 --> 00:26:45,640 Speaker 1: but you're saying seven I T guys won the jack. 524 00:26:45,680 --> 00:26:47,560 Speaker 1: But I feel like that has to be some kind 525 00:26:47,560 --> 00:26:50,160 Speaker 1: of fits, like with the m I T students, right, Yeah, 526 00:26:50,200 --> 00:26:52,639 Speaker 1: I mean that's possible, but considering what Coody did with 527 00:26:52,720 --> 00:26:55,000 Speaker 1: his money, like I wouldn't hold it against him. He 528 00:26:55,040 --> 00:26:57,359 Speaker 1: and his wife actually decided to use a good chunk 529 00:26:57,359 --> 00:27:00,040 Speaker 1: of their winnings to build this massive water park for 530 00:27:00,080 --> 00:27:02,920 Speaker 1: the community. And this was in Green Island, New York. 531 00:27:03,200 --> 00:27:06,439 Speaker 1: They called it Spray Park, and it's dedicated to Cootie's parents, 532 00:27:06,440 --> 00:27:09,640 Speaker 1: who apparently used to take their kids into this, uh, 533 00:27:09,680 --> 00:27:12,360 Speaker 1: I guess outdated water park in the community, and that's 534 00:27:12,400 --> 00:27:15,639 Speaker 1: the one he helped replace. That's pretty sweet and I 535 00:27:15,920 --> 00:27:18,080 Speaker 1: do love these kinds of stories. I was actually reading 536 00:27:18,080 --> 00:27:20,280 Speaker 1: about another lot of winning couple. They were named Allen 537 00:27:20,359 --> 00:27:23,679 Speaker 1: and Violet Large, and they want about eleven million dollars 538 00:27:23,760 --> 00:27:25,679 Speaker 1: back in two thousand and ten, and they ended up 539 00:27:25,680 --> 00:27:29,000 Speaker 1: giving away nine percent of it within the first year. 540 00:27:29,080 --> 00:27:31,960 Speaker 1: Is that not crazy? Yeah, I mean is a lot 541 00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:35,399 Speaker 1: of percent. So where did the money go? Well, according 542 00:27:35,480 --> 00:27:37,880 Speaker 1: to an article in the Toronto Star, the couple donated 543 00:27:37,920 --> 00:27:40,320 Speaker 1: nearly all of their winnings to the Red Cross, to 544 00:27:40,359 --> 00:27:43,960 Speaker 1: their local churches, fire departments, and even the hospitals where 545 00:27:44,000 --> 00:27:47,200 Speaker 1: Violet had undergone cancer treatment. And of course, while while 546 00:27:47,240 --> 00:27:49,439 Speaker 1: parting with that much lout is painful for you know, 547 00:27:49,520 --> 00:27:51,480 Speaker 1: so many of us to even think about, it was 548 00:27:51,520 --> 00:27:54,679 Speaker 1: apparently pretty easy for the largest There was this interview 549 00:27:54,720 --> 00:27:57,560 Speaker 1: I was looking at where Violet told reporters what you've 550 00:27:57,600 --> 00:28:00,840 Speaker 1: never had, you never miss I mean, it really is 551 00:28:00,880 --> 00:28:03,080 Speaker 1: amazing to see people react and you found wealth so 552 00:28:03,200 --> 00:28:06,600 Speaker 1: humbly like that. Um, speaking of humility, did did you 553 00:28:06,640 --> 00:28:09,160 Speaker 1: hear about this homeless guy in Illinois who won fifty 554 00:28:09,840 --> 00:28:12,920 Speaker 1: on a scratcher? Apparently he lived in a tent in 555 00:28:13,040 --> 00:28:15,680 Speaker 1: homeless community for like thirty five years at this point, 556 00:28:15,720 --> 00:28:17,760 Speaker 1: and that's when he won the money. But rather than 557 00:28:17,880 --> 00:28:19,840 Speaker 1: leave his friends for a comfy home of his own, 558 00:28:20,080 --> 00:28:23,119 Speaker 1: he decided to stay right where he was. Wait, so 559 00:28:23,160 --> 00:28:26,560 Speaker 1: he just stayed in his tent. Yeah. He told reporters 560 00:28:26,600 --> 00:28:29,000 Speaker 1: that he planned to use the money for an overdue 561 00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:31,199 Speaker 1: trip to the dentist, and he also wanted to use 562 00:28:31,240 --> 00:28:33,160 Speaker 1: some of the money to visit his son. But then 563 00:28:33,200 --> 00:28:36,280 Speaker 1: he gave a hundred dollars to every homeless person he knew, 564 00:28:36,560 --> 00:28:39,200 Speaker 1: and I'm guessing he knew a lot of them. Wow. 565 00:28:39,360 --> 00:28:40,880 Speaker 1: All right, so this is kind of a tangent, but 566 00:28:40,920 --> 00:28:42,200 Speaker 1: you made me think of it when you brought up 567 00:28:42,240 --> 00:28:45,000 Speaker 1: scratchers again. And we've been talking about the bright side 568 00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:48,280 Speaker 1: of playing the lottery throughout this segment. But there's actually 569 00:28:48,280 --> 00:28:51,080 Speaker 1: a way to get enjoyment from lotteries without playing them, 570 00:28:51,320 --> 00:28:53,840 Speaker 1: and the best part is it won't cost you a dime. 571 00:28:54,240 --> 00:28:57,240 Speaker 1: So what was the catch? Actually, there's no catch. All 572 00:28:57,280 --> 00:29:00,200 Speaker 1: you have to do is become a litologist. And if 573 00:29:00,200 --> 00:29:03,240 Speaker 1: by some chance you don't already know what a latologist is, 574 00:29:03,680 --> 00:29:05,640 Speaker 1: I can tell you that it's a person who collects 575 00:29:05,880 --> 00:29:09,720 Speaker 1: lottery tickets. So how does that cost no money? Well, 576 00:29:09,760 --> 00:29:12,240 Speaker 1: because it's a collecting hobby, it's not a gambling hobby. 577 00:29:12,320 --> 00:29:16,040 Speaker 1: So most latologists don't collect fresh or unused scratch cards. 578 00:29:16,040 --> 00:29:20,120 Speaker 1: They're actually collecting losing tickets or maybe even winners tickets 579 00:29:20,120 --> 00:29:23,320 Speaker 1: that have already been redeemed by the customers. So how 580 00:29:23,320 --> 00:29:26,320 Speaker 1: many latologists are there. I feel like you keep saying they, 581 00:29:26,360 --> 00:29:28,680 Speaker 1: but to me it feels like one person in his 582 00:29:28,720 --> 00:29:33,680 Speaker 1: parent's basement. Well, according to the Global Lottery Collectors Society. 583 00:29:33,920 --> 00:29:36,320 Speaker 1: You may not have been familiar with the Global Lottery 584 00:29:36,360 --> 00:29:39,960 Speaker 1: Collectors Society, there's a group of a few hundred passionate 585 00:29:39,960 --> 00:29:43,720 Speaker 1: collectors who trade and catalog all these various scratch off 586 00:29:43,760 --> 00:29:46,600 Speaker 1: games released in the US. And this one guy in particular, 587 00:29:46,640 --> 00:29:48,440 Speaker 1: his name is Arthur Rain, and he has one of 588 00:29:48,520 --> 00:29:51,480 Speaker 1: the biggest collections in the world. He's got over fifty 589 00:29:51,640 --> 00:29:56,720 Speaker 1: seven thousand different scratchers in his collection, so that's pretty crazy. 590 00:29:56,800 --> 00:29:58,760 Speaker 1: But I did notice you said one of the biggest, 591 00:29:58,840 --> 00:30:02,040 Speaker 1: So what's that mean exact Well, apparently they are one 592 00:30:02,160 --> 00:30:04,680 Speaker 1: or two other people in the society with bigger collections, 593 00:30:04,680 --> 00:30:08,440 Speaker 1: which I know is pretty hard to believe. So I'm 594 00:30:08,480 --> 00:30:10,960 Speaker 1: curious now, like, is there a holy grail for lata 595 00:30:11,160 --> 00:30:14,520 Speaker 1: just like, is there one special scratch off that everyone 596 00:30:14,520 --> 00:30:17,760 Speaker 1: would spend money on? Yeah, there definitely is. According to Rain, 597 00:30:17,800 --> 00:30:20,880 Speaker 1: the most sought after scratcher is this nineteen seventies six 598 00:30:20,920 --> 00:30:23,800 Speaker 1: card and it was from Illinois and it has Herbert 599 00:30:23,800 --> 00:30:26,440 Speaker 1: Hoover's picture on it. Apparently it was part of a 600 00:30:26,480 --> 00:30:30,120 Speaker 1: promotion where each ticket featured a different president, and once 601 00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:33,320 Speaker 1: the game was over, the lottery picked one president, and 602 00:30:33,440 --> 00:30:36,760 Speaker 1: anybody who submitted a losing ticket with that president's face 603 00:30:36,800 --> 00:30:39,960 Speaker 1: on it would be entered to win a consolation prize. Well, 604 00:30:40,000 --> 00:30:42,880 Speaker 1: Herbert Hoover ended up as the lucky President, and because 605 00:30:42,920 --> 00:30:46,280 Speaker 1: so many players mailed him in, there aren't many Hoover's 606 00:30:46,360 --> 00:30:49,280 Speaker 1: left in circulation. In fact, if you're lucky to find 607 00:30:49,360 --> 00:30:52,160 Speaker 1: one of the three or four copies known to exist 608 00:30:52,480 --> 00:30:54,400 Speaker 1: and you want to add it to your collection, it'll 609 00:30:54,440 --> 00:30:56,800 Speaker 1: set you back about five hundred bucks to do so. 610 00:30:57,360 --> 00:31:00,240 Speaker 1: I love that it's only worth five minute dollars, but 611 00:31:00,360 --> 00:31:03,600 Speaker 1: I mean it is a four year old losing lottery tickets. 612 00:31:04,640 --> 00:31:07,440 Speaker 1: But I am curious, though, if the Hoover card is 613 00:31:07,480 --> 00:31:10,480 Speaker 1: this exception to the rule, how are lutologious getting the 614 00:31:10,480 --> 00:31:12,320 Speaker 1: bulk of their collections. I mean, I get that they 615 00:31:12,360 --> 00:31:14,720 Speaker 1: trade with each other, but they've got to start out 616 00:31:14,760 --> 00:31:18,040 Speaker 1: with something to trade, right, Yeah, of course that's true. 617 00:31:18,080 --> 00:31:20,400 Speaker 1: I mean, so so many collectors actually have deals with 618 00:31:20,440 --> 00:31:23,360 Speaker 1: a whole network of stores, so they'll you know, make 619 00:31:23,400 --> 00:31:26,040 Speaker 1: their rounds once a week or so, and they'll collect 620 00:31:26,080 --> 00:31:29,080 Speaker 1: all the used tickets that A stores customers just left behind. 621 00:31:29,920 --> 00:31:33,800 Speaker 1: It's such a specific hobby, it sounds amazing. You know. 622 00:31:34,200 --> 00:31:36,240 Speaker 1: It kind of reminds me of our friends Sarah, who 623 00:31:36,320 --> 00:31:39,000 Speaker 1: used to find business cards on sidewalks or I guess 624 00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:42,520 Speaker 1: that convention floors and and collect them. And I think 625 00:31:42,520 --> 00:31:44,080 Speaker 1: her big idea was that someday she was going to 626 00:31:44,120 --> 00:31:45,840 Speaker 1: throw a party for all these people who wanted to 627 00:31:45,920 --> 00:31:48,760 Speaker 1: network and get their name out there. But I mean, 628 00:31:48,840 --> 00:31:51,320 Speaker 1: it's I know, I think it's great, Like I love 629 00:31:51,360 --> 00:31:53,920 Speaker 1: to I should start leaving my business card places. But 630 00:31:54,800 --> 00:31:57,040 Speaker 1: I mean, at least like a business card has value. 631 00:31:57,120 --> 00:32:00,360 Speaker 1: I can't imagine keeping fifty of anything in my house. 632 00:32:00,440 --> 00:32:03,120 Speaker 1: You know, where do you even find the room for that? Well, 633 00:32:03,160 --> 00:32:05,320 Speaker 1: that's what's funny about I read this interview with Rain 634 00:32:05,440 --> 00:32:08,520 Speaker 1: from Atlas Obscura and and and he says, I gotta 635 00:32:08,600 --> 00:32:10,880 Speaker 1: beg my wife every day not to throw me out 636 00:32:10,920 --> 00:32:14,320 Speaker 1: of the house. So I mean, i'd say the fact 637 00:32:14,320 --> 00:32:17,280 Speaker 1: that it hasn't happened already makes him pretty lucky. And 638 00:32:17,560 --> 00:32:19,400 Speaker 1: speaking of lucky, well, what do you say we get 639 00:32:19,400 --> 00:32:21,720 Speaker 1: a little fact off going. I've got to can't lose 640 00:32:21,760 --> 00:32:24,320 Speaker 1: feeling today. All right, well, let's see what you got 641 00:32:31,280 --> 00:32:34,160 Speaker 1: so well, did you know that pigeons love to gamble? 642 00:32:35,040 --> 00:32:38,040 Speaker 1: According to scientific American scientists at the University of Kentucky 643 00:32:38,120 --> 00:32:41,200 Speaker 1: set up these Avian gambling parlors where pigeons could pick 644 00:32:41,280 --> 00:32:44,480 Speaker 1: at one symbol and reliably get a single food pellet, 645 00:32:44,760 --> 00:32:48,080 Speaker 1: and this happened every single time. Or they had the 646 00:32:48,080 --> 00:32:50,560 Speaker 1: option to peck at a second symbol, and this was 647 00:32:50,600 --> 00:32:53,240 Speaker 1: a wild card, and most of the times they'd get nothing, 648 00:32:53,320 --> 00:32:55,920 Speaker 1: But every once in a while they'd hit the jackpot 649 00:32:56,160 --> 00:32:59,840 Speaker 1: and they'd get ten food pellets. But that big pay 650 00:33:00,080 --> 00:33:02,280 Speaker 1: it was actually way too much for them to resist. 651 00:33:02,320 --> 00:33:05,240 Speaker 1: So whenever they were given a choice, the pigeons chose 652 00:33:05,280 --> 00:33:08,280 Speaker 1: to gamble. And this was more than eighty percent of a 653 00:33:08,240 --> 00:33:11,680 Speaker 1: a time, even though the winnings were way less when 654 00:33:11,680 --> 00:33:15,120 Speaker 1: you average them out, that's pretty good, all right. Well, 655 00:33:15,160 --> 00:33:18,280 Speaker 1: in Europe and particularly Italy, there's a tradition where the 656 00:33:18,320 --> 00:33:21,720 Speaker 1: lottery is drawn by blindfolded kids, which seems like kind 657 00:33:21,720 --> 00:33:24,520 Speaker 1: of a weird tradition. And the idea here is that 658 00:33:24,600 --> 00:33:27,040 Speaker 1: children are innocent, so this is a game you can 659 00:33:27,160 --> 00:33:29,640 Speaker 1: supposedly trust. Although I feel like there have been so 660 00:33:29,680 --> 00:33:32,280 Speaker 1: many studies showing that children are not at all honest 661 00:33:32,320 --> 00:33:34,920 Speaker 1: on this kind of thing. But anyway, but this was 662 00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:38,040 Speaker 1: before things were automated, back in the two thousands, and 663 00:33:38,520 --> 00:33:41,520 Speaker 1: as it turns out, not surprisingly, the kids were part 664 00:33:41,560 --> 00:33:44,880 Speaker 1: of a massive scam. They'd actually been trained to feel 665 00:33:44,920 --> 00:33:48,080 Speaker 1: for these roughed up lottery balls, and when the journalists 666 00:33:48,080 --> 00:33:50,880 Speaker 1: who broke the scandal started looking into this, they found 667 00:33:50,880 --> 00:33:55,160 Speaker 1: that the kids were being paid in toys. So I 668 00:33:55,240 --> 00:33:57,440 Speaker 1: love the idea that, like, you can actually fix a 669 00:33:57,520 --> 00:34:00,400 Speaker 1: multimillion lottery with I don't know, like some e bears 670 00:34:00,400 --> 00:34:04,440 Speaker 1: and director sets, that's all it takes. Did you realize 671 00:34:04,440 --> 00:34:07,080 Speaker 1: that it's way harder to win McDonald's monopoly game than 672 00:34:07,080 --> 00:34:09,920 Speaker 1: it is to win an actual lottery And apparently the 673 00:34:09,960 --> 00:34:12,720 Speaker 1: odds of winning Powerball are one in a hundred seventy 674 00:34:12,719 --> 00:34:16,080 Speaker 1: five million, So already you're more likely to die on 675 00:34:16,120 --> 00:34:17,480 Speaker 1: the way to playing a lot of than you are 676 00:34:17,560 --> 00:34:19,600 Speaker 1: to winning it. But that one in a hundred seventy 677 00:34:19,640 --> 00:34:22,560 Speaker 1: five million is great odds compared to the odds of 678 00:34:22,600 --> 00:34:26,480 Speaker 1: finding a boardwalk piece, which is one in six hundred million. 679 00:34:27,040 --> 00:34:29,680 Speaker 1: And when you factor in also finding a park place, 680 00:34:30,200 --> 00:34:32,840 Speaker 1: your odds of winning go down to one in three billion. 681 00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:36,359 Speaker 1: Isn't that the saying, wow, that's pretty great? All right? Well, 682 00:34:36,360 --> 00:34:39,319 Speaker 1: in nineteen twelve, Popular Mechanics reported that a hospital in 683 00:34:39,400 --> 00:34:42,399 Speaker 1: Paris had held a lottery, but they actually were giving 684 00:34:42,440 --> 00:34:44,560 Speaker 1: out something a little different than money. They were giving 685 00:34:44,600 --> 00:34:47,680 Speaker 1: out babies, like if you won, you won a baby, 686 00:34:47,760 --> 00:34:49,560 Speaker 1: which is I don't know. It feels like kind of 687 00:34:49,560 --> 00:34:52,440 Speaker 1: a dubious prize for a lot of people, but it's 688 00:34:52,480 --> 00:34:54,960 Speaker 1: the only time we know of that this has happened. 689 00:34:55,000 --> 00:34:57,920 Speaker 1: But the hospital they not only consulted authorities, but they 690 00:34:57,920 --> 00:35:00,560 Speaker 1: actually made sure to research whether a winning pupple was 691 00:35:00,600 --> 00:35:03,480 Speaker 1: actually good to be foster parents before they handed them 692 00:35:03,480 --> 00:35:08,120 Speaker 1: a baby. I guess that sounds smart. So this feels 693 00:35:08,160 --> 00:35:11,080 Speaker 1: like such luck. But when Zimbabwe ran a lottery in 694 00:35:11,120 --> 00:35:14,040 Speaker 1: two thousand, the dictator and president of Zimbabwe at the time, 695 00:35:14,160 --> 00:35:17,640 Speaker 1: Robert Mugabe, just happened to win it, like he won 696 00:35:17,680 --> 00:35:19,840 Speaker 1: the grand prize of a hundred thousand dollars in the 697 00:35:19,920 --> 00:35:23,279 Speaker 1: state run lottery. And it's kind of amazing how that happened. Yeah, 698 00:35:23,400 --> 00:35:27,000 Speaker 1: just such a lucky guy, I guess. All right, all right, 699 00:35:27,000 --> 00:35:29,120 Speaker 1: so I've got one more fun one. So you remember 700 00:35:29,120 --> 00:35:31,839 Speaker 1: how they were all those Volkswagen commercials that we're trying 701 00:35:31,880 --> 00:35:36,719 Speaker 1: to gamify good behavior a while back, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, 702 00:35:36,760 --> 00:35:38,640 Speaker 1: like they you know, they made those trash cans that 703 00:35:38,680 --> 00:35:41,440 Speaker 1: would blink and flash whenever you put your litter in them, 704 00:35:41,480 --> 00:35:43,680 Speaker 1: and I remember one of the others they had those 705 00:35:43,760 --> 00:35:46,360 Speaker 1: musical steps that made sounds when you use them instead 706 00:35:46,400 --> 00:35:48,799 Speaker 1: of the elevator, And it was all these little bits 707 00:35:48,800 --> 00:35:50,680 Speaker 1: of joy that we're there to encourage you to do 708 00:35:50,719 --> 00:35:53,960 Speaker 1: good things, either for you or for society. One of 709 00:35:53,960 --> 00:35:57,160 Speaker 1: the ideas that actually got implemented in Sweden was when 710 00:35:57,200 --> 00:36:00,080 Speaker 1: they set up the lottery at traffic lights. So you 711 00:36:00,080 --> 00:36:01,440 Speaker 1: know when you run a red light, they're all these 712 00:36:01,480 --> 00:36:04,040 Speaker 1: places where cameras will catch you and then send you 713 00:36:04,120 --> 00:36:06,680 Speaker 1: a ticket in the mail. Well, well they actually turn 714 00:36:06,760 --> 00:36:09,840 Speaker 1: that into a lottery for good drivers. So whenever you 715 00:36:09,960 --> 00:36:13,760 Speaker 1: slowed down and stopped, you were automatically put into a lottery, 716 00:36:14,120 --> 00:36:16,160 Speaker 1: and then the winners were paid out with money that 717 00:36:16,239 --> 00:36:19,239 Speaker 1: came from speeding fines. Isn't that a great idea? I 718 00:36:19,280 --> 00:36:21,800 Speaker 1: love it, you know, for all my hubers going into this, 719 00:36:21,960 --> 00:36:23,680 Speaker 1: I I do think you get to walk away with 720 00:36:23,719 --> 00:36:26,680 Speaker 1: the prize this week. Well, thank you very much and uh, 721 00:36:26,920 --> 00:36:29,839 Speaker 1: I'm sure we forgot some great facts about lotteries over 722 00:36:29,880 --> 00:36:31,759 Speaker 1: the years and we would love to hear those from. 723 00:36:31,840 --> 00:36:34,080 Speaker 1: You can always email us part Time Genius and How 724 00:36:34,120 --> 00:36:36,360 Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. You can also call us on 725 00:36:37,239 --> 00:36:40,560 Speaker 1: fact hot line that's eight six six pt Genius, or 726 00:36:40,600 --> 00:36:42,600 Speaker 1: as always, you can hit us up on Facebook or Twitter. 727 00:36:42,680 --> 00:36:58,720 Speaker 1: But thanks so much for listening. Thanks again for listening. 728 00:36:58,840 --> 00:37:00,720 Speaker 1: Part Time Genius is a product and of How Stuff 729 00:37:00,760 --> 00:37:03,480 Speaker 1: Works and wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people who 730 00:37:03,480 --> 00:37:06,200 Speaker 1: do the important things we couldn't even begin to understand. 731 00:37:06,440 --> 00:37:09,120 Speaker 1: Tristan McNeil does the editing thing. Noel Brown made the 732 00:37:09,120 --> 00:37:11,920 Speaker 1: theme song and does the mixy mixy sound thing. Jerry 733 00:37:12,000 --> 00:37:14,839 Speaker 1: Rowland does the exact producer thing. Gay Bluesier is our 734 00:37:14,920 --> 00:37:18,240 Speaker 1: lead researcher, with support from the Research Army including Austin Thompson, 735 00:37:18,280 --> 00:37:20,879 Speaker 1: Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams and Eve Jeff Cook gets 736 00:37:20,880 --> 00:37:22,960 Speaker 1: the show to your ears. Good job, Eves. If you 737 00:37:23,000 --> 00:37:24,880 Speaker 1: like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe, And if 738 00:37:24,920 --> 00:37:26,839 Speaker 1: you really really like what you've heard, maybe you could 739 00:37:26,880 --> 00:37:28,840 Speaker 1: leave a good review for us. Do we do? We 740 00:37:28,880 --> 00:37:30,400 Speaker 1: forget Jason Jason, who