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   BrianKrebs (briankrebs@infosec.exchange)'s status on Friday, 07-Mar-2025 12:51:57 JST BrianKrebs

   The unusual circumstances surrounding two of the largest Lottery jackpots in Texas history have touched off a furious debate about the unorthodox methods used to snag the prizes and have led the governor and attorney general to announce investigations.

   On April 22, 2023, someone won a $95 million Lotto Texas jackpot by spending $25 million to buy nearly every possible number combination in the draw. The winner, identified only as a business entity called Rook TX, of Scotch Plains, N.J., ended up claiming the lump-sum payment of $57,804,000 before taxes.

   https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/06/us/texas-lottery-system-investigation.html

   I reminded of this guy:

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6kBfBXZBdc

   • Embed this notice
     feld (feld@friedcheese.us)'s status on Friday, 07-Mar-2025 12:51:56 JST feld

     in reply to
     @briankrebs When I worked at a casino we had some progressive jackpot machines and we'd get calls from people on the coasts asking what the current jackpot was and if it crossed ~30k they'd fly in from Cali and NYC and spend the weekend playing them in shifts day and night until they won, then they'd go home.
     
     If a game has a weakness, exploit it.
     
     There was another machine we had that was quite old and the jackpot was networked across the country. By some law the game couldn't be retired until the jackpot was won. It was constantly broken with no replacement parts available so I spent a lot of time repairing it. I can't remember its specifics but the jackpot was around $250k and I was quite certain that you could win it for under $30k.
     
     We also had Star Wars machines that had a clearly broken algorithm because I could pull up the maintenance mode and look at how much money it has taken in since last jackpot and know if it was going to hit before my next shift. I was never wrong.
     
     Some other video slots were clearly bugged as well because we had these construction contractor guys come in every month and win the $15k jackpot on it
     
     TL;DR I hope the winners keep their money
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     翠星石 (suiseiseki@freesoftwareextremist.com)'s status on Friday, 07-Mar-2025 12:52:38 JST 翠星石

     in reply to
     @briankrebs Yes, you get an almost certain win if you put 25 million at risk by getting nearly every possible number combination in the draw.
     
     I'm sure the lottery company won't make that same mistake again and will add more combinations so it's no longer possible to get every single number.