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Retired mathematician cracks lotteries, wins $8 million Login/Join 
Baroque Bloke
Picture of Pipe Smoker
posted
Simple arithmetic…

“A retired couple who won $26 million [$8M, actually] playing state lotteries by using simple arithmetic could have a Hollywood movie made of their incredible story.

Jerry and Marge Selbee made millions winning various state lottery games over six years and helped others in their home town of Evart, Michigan, beat the system.

The pair sold the convenience store they had run for 17 years in 2003, when Mr Selbee made the discovery that changed their lives.

He has a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Western Michigan University and when he saw a brochure for a new lottery called Winfall, he realized within minutes how to beat the odds.

The unique feature he cracked was the 'roll down', which was when no one won the $5 million jackpot and the money was then spread across those who matched five, four and three numbers…”

https://mol.im/a/6639765



Serious about crackers
 
Posts: 9727 | Location: San Diego | Registered: July 26, 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Eschew Obfuscation
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I read a long article about this guy last year. Very interesting. I will try to find it and post the link.

EDIT: Here is the article I mentioned.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: CoolRich59,


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Posts: 6649 | Location: Chicago, IL | Registered: December 17, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Plowing straight ahead come what may
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I wonder if he is related to the constipated mathematician who worked it out with a pencil?

When I play (rarely) I just "quick pick" but I never win Frown


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Posts: 10623 | Location: Southeast Tennessee...not far above my homestate Georgia | Registered: March 10, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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You mean, Dr. Gunter Zooloft? The one who almost solved Carmichael's totient conjecture?




Regards,

P.
 
Posts: 1291 | Location: Alabama | Registered: May 20, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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They were featured on 60 Minutes last night
 
Posts: 5821 | Location: Chicago | Registered: August 18, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Baroque Bloke
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quote:
Originally posted by pbramlett:
You mean, Dr. Gunter Zooloft? The one who almost solved Carmichael's totient conjecture?

A conjecture on Euler's totient function. IMO, Leonhard Euler was the greatest mathematician ever. Euler's zeta function, and Riemann’s conjecture about its complex form… Astounding.



Serious about crackers
 
Posts: 9727 | Location: San Diego | Registered: July 26, 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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How do you buy thousands of unique tickets. Or do you just hope quick pick does not give repeats.
 
Posts: 958 | Registered: October 07, 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Help! Help!
I'm being repressed!

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MIT has an interesting history in gambling.
 
Posts: 11215 | Location: The Magnolia State | Registered: November 20, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
His Royal Hiney
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quote:
Originally posted by Spokane228:
How do you buy thousands of unique tickets. Or do you just hope quick pick does not give repeats.


You would hope it's random. They were just playing on the times when the payout was better than what the odds should dictate. This is different than when the jackpot payout is bigger than the odds then the strategy is to buy all possible permutations of the numbers because for sure one of them will hit the jackpot.



"It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life – daily and hourly. Our answer must consist not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual." Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, 1946.
 
Posts: 20311 | Location: The Free State of Arizona - Ditat Deus | Registered: March 24, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Picture of Orthogonal
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All the zeros of R(z)=1 may not lie upon the line. They are said to be 'nervous' the farther out one looks.
Big Grin
 
Posts: 520 | Registered: May 03, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Baroque Bloke
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^^^^^^^^
It’ll make the number theorists really nervous if any of the zeros is nervous enough to escape x = 1/2.



Serious about crackers
 
Posts: 9727 | Location: San Diego | Registered: July 26, 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Indeed, the /2 was omitted in haste. I long ago purchased and still own an entire treatise on Herr Doktor Riemann's enigma, but not from the number theorists' perspective, the algebraeists flavor of whom I later battled so fruitlessly that I re-oriented my entire professional life to far more productive (and far improved remuneratively) endeavors. My academic heritage was via David Hilbert. Smile
 
Posts: 520 | Registered: May 03, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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You all seem to be having a great time but I feel worse than when I opened the thread. Mad




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I like turtles...


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Posts: 7115 | Location: South East, Pa | Registered: July 04, 2002Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by Ripley:
You all seem to be having a great time but I feel worse than when I opened the thread. Mad

Yeah. Me too. Once I got past "mathematician wins lottery", it all started going over my apparently pointy head.
 
Posts: 1329 | Location: Gainesville, VA | Registered: February 27, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
אַרְיֵה
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x = ???



הרחפת שלי מלאה בצלופחים
 
Posts: 31773 | Location: Central Florida, Orlando area | Registered: January 03, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Stop Talking, Start Doing
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All you have to do is add two and then subtract four from the previous drawing’s numbers


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Posts: 5092 | Location: The (R)ight side of Washington State | Registered: August 31, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Little ray
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He didn't "beat" the lottery. He did realize that under the distribution rules of this particular game, that the odds got considerably better at a certain point, and bought tickets in that game.




The fish is mute, expressionless. The fish doesn't think because the fish knows everything.
 
Posts: 53447 | Location: Texas | Registered: February 10, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
His diet consists of black
coffee, and sarcasm.
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Using any kind of mathematical strategy to win in a casino will, at the very least, get you kicked out of it. In other words, you are penalized for playing the games too well.
 
Posts: 29131 | Location: Johnson City, TN | Registered: April 28, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by jhe888:
He didn't "beat" the lottery. He did realize that under the distribution rules of this particular game, that the odds got considerably better at a certain point, and bought tickets in that game.


Well, in one sense if you are able to consistently make money when gambling you are beating the odds, so he did "beat" the lottery.

That is not to say he did anything wrong or illegal.


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