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If You Had The 'Secret' To Winning The Lottery, Would You Patent It?
from the economically-challenging-questions dept
Okay, so this story is bizarre enough by itself, but there's an odd twist at the end. A husband and wife who held four separate winning lottery tickets claims to have figured out a secret formula for winning the lottery. That seems highly unlikely, of course. There is no formula that can predict totally independent numbers. The four winning tickets all used the same numbers, so there's no proof that the couple did anything other than get lucky by having the same number they played four different times hit.
However, their lawyer is claiming that the couple is "exploring patent protection." Want to see a sign of how ridiculous the patent situation has become? If you had figured out the (non-existent) secret to winning the lottery, would you use it to (a) keep winning the lottery or (b) patent it? It's only in these bizarre times that a couple would even think that (b) would be the more profitable option. Of course, if there really were some secret to predicting independent numbers that the couple had figured out, wouldn't you think that any lottery commission would immediately change how their lottery worked the second that patent was published?
However, their lawyer is claiming that the couple is "exploring patent protection." Want to see a sign of how ridiculous the patent situation has become? If you had figured out the (non-existent) secret to winning the lottery, would you use it to (a) keep winning the lottery or (b) patent it? It's only in these bizarre times that a couple would even think that (b) would be the more profitable option. Of course, if there really were some secret to predicting independent numbers that the couple had figured out, wouldn't you think that any lottery commission would immediately change how their lottery worked the second that patent was published?
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Just, wow.
Only in America!
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Makes sense!
That would mean they could sue any lottery winner for infringing on their patent. The person won the lottery, so that would be the proof, and they are now flush with cash and would want to settle out of court, no?
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Re: Makes sense!
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Selling it as a late-night infomercial would be better.
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Re:
They got lucky (god knows how many tickets they bought. Presumably these were 4 independent, large-scale $million+ lotteries and not 4 tix for the same one when their numbers hit) and, when people jokingly kept saying, "What's your secret?" they decided to "invent" one and informertialbookize it.
You'd be surprised what late-nite informertials get away with before they get stopped with a slap on the wrist (and usually altered and continued anyway.)
I recall that long-haired muscle trainer blonde guy selling his own pasta maker, picking up a box of store-bought pasta and saying, "You don't know what's in this. Look! Niacin. Riboflavin. What is this stuff?!?!?"
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If you had won the lottery 4 times
Once even at the starter amount would keep a conservative person for the rest of their lives, with a fair amount to pass on to their heirs.
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Re: If you had won the lottery 4 times
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Re: If you had won the lottery 4 times
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Re: If you had won the lottery 4 times
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Great Demonstration
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Re: Great Demonstration
I was thinking the same thing. The couple is so rich now (supposedly) that the lawyer is cashing in on their stupidity. Unless, they patent the idea, then license it to other idiots.
Remember, the lottery is a tax on the poor.
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Re: Re: Great Demonstration
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Re: Re: Great Demonstration
No it isn't. It's a tax on the mathematically challenged.
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Re: Re: Great Demonstration
There, fixed that for you.
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Win the Lotto?
Sound familiar? I know a scam when I smell one--and these people are full of it.
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Ways to win...
1) Get lucky. There's too much prior art to patent this one.
2) Find, via analysis of public information, a flaw in the lottery's random number generation. Not good to patent because once you release details, THEY'LL FIX IT.
3) Create, thought illegal tampering, a flaw in the the lottery's random number generation. Not good to patent because once you release details, THEY'LL ARREST YOU.
So no, this won't go anywhere. And one more set of morons show their true colors in public.
What else is new?
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Re: Ways to win...
So that leaves pretty much #1.
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Re: Ways to win...
4) Wait until expected returns (jackpot * odds of winning) are greater than the cost of a ticket. Preferably a lot higher. Then buy as many tickets as you can, like thousands. No guarantee of winning, but in the long run you'll come out ahead. 4a)When choosing numbers, choose round numbers like 10 and 25, because fewer people play those.
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Re: Re: Ways to win...
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Re: Ways to win...
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In this case, and given the mathematical impossibility of accurately predicting random numbers, this couple will almost certainly be told that their "secret method" is not patentable because of its lack of "utility".
BTW, the attorney mentioned in the article is not one familiar with IP law, otherwise his comment would never have been made.
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Sad state of affairs
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Maybe Yes, Maybe No
If I remember correctly the winner has been
keeping a record of the numbers for about four
years. Maybe he found a flaw in the process
used to generate random numbers by the lottery
folks? His wife said they bought a lot of tickets
over the years so he's not claiming to be able
to predict THE numbe. Only that he can improve
his odds.
If I was running a lottery I'd use one of the
radioactive decay generators, or maybe the
lava lamps www.lavarnd.org or perhaps a noisey
diode. Nothing that depended on code.
I'm betting it was dumb luck and some lawyer
is trying to profit from the winner though
a clever angle.
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Re: Maybe Yes, Maybe No
you can develop a method of generating a sufficiently random number with nearly any pseudo-random number generator. also then any flaws could be changed as easily as typing a single character differently.
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Re: Re: Maybe Yes, Maybe No
and radioactive decay device together.
As I understand it the lava lamps are
used to seed a pseudo random generator.
Which does overcome a significant problem.
The radioactive decay type random number
generator generator that I'm familiar with
does not seed a pseudo random generator.
The time between clicks is a random number.
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Crazy Talk
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actually
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Re: actually
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What kind of a country is this?
It is really surprising that this country has so much scientific progress with so many stupid people around.
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They "wheeled" a set of numbers, not rocket science
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Re: They
That was my first thought, too.
For those who are curious, "wheeling" is using combinatorial covering to play multiple tickets (or "lines" as they're apparently called in lottery-speak) in such a way that it probabilistically minimises your worst-case losses.
Let's suppose, for sake of argument, that there are exactly 50 million possible combinations, and you decide you are going to buy exactly 50 million tickets. The optimal strategy is to buy 50 million distinct tickets, because then you would be guaranteed to win. The key point is that there is an optimal strategy (and in this case, it's unique); if maximising your chances if winning is what's important, all other strategies are worse.
"Wheeling" works on the same idea, only with fewer tickets. You might, for example, buy enough tickets so that all pairs of numbers are covered by at least one ticket (hence the term "combinatorial cover"). This guarantees that no matter what numbers are drawn, you are guaranteed to have at least two correct.
Note that wheeling is not a "way to win the lottery". Rather, it's a method for turning average-case behaviour into worst-case behaviour. You will never do worse than some bound that's limited only by the amount of money you're willing to spend. (Which is, of course, less than the amount of money you're likely to win, but such is life.)
Incidentally, the problem of designing (or even counting) minimal combinatorial covers is an open mathematical problem. If they've solved it, they should write it up; there's a PhD in combinatorics with their names on it.
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Some people believe that the true method of success is to find a windfall for little work. People write songs on the hopes of writing the one song that sells millions. People patent products on the idea that a slightly novel addition to an existing idea should win them millions. People sue at the drop of the hat thinking that they really /deserve/ millions of dollars because they spill hot coffee on themselves, or because their children are exposed to a boob. People applaud the success of those who win on reality shows. I've even heard people refer to this as the "American dream". They think that winning the lottery, winning a game show, or getting rich off of Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer /is/ the American dream.
So, it comes as no surprise surprise to me that someone with the "lottery mentality" would try to patent a method for winning the lottery...
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Re:
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I know of a case not unlike this.
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Nice arg
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The states would change the lottery overnight, making any work you've done a big fat null.
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Question...
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for some
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clueless
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It's too late...
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1) Go to package store, buy PBR
2) Get free entry form from local package store
3) Drink PBR
4) Circle numbers on form according to your birthday, anniversary date, and today's date.
5) Pay $1 and enter form
6) Drink PBR
7) Realize that your lottery ticket cost you $3.99 and the humiliation of drinking PBR
8) Hope that the numbers on this weeks lottery match your birthday, anniversary, or the date you drank PBR.
9) Repeat until your birthday comes up in lottery numbers.
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The Macrovision Approach
They could do a similar thing to what Macrovision did: not only patent their technique, but also get patents on all the ways they can think of to bypass that technique. Then when the lottery commission tries to change the way the numbers are drawn to defeat the number-predicting technique, they can sue.
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mentalism
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Not true games like Pick 4 or 5, pay out a flat amount. From time to time they limit the payout or lockout out certain numbers. In New York they limited 0911 after people went bought a ton of tickets with that combo on the anni.
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I liked comment #2
Option B makes perfect sense!
That would mean they could sue any lottery winner for infringing on their patent. The person won the lottery, so that would be the proof, and they are now flush with cash and would want to settle out of court, no?
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Here is an idea...
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rigged lottery games
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Re: rigged lottery games
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if you had the secret.....
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leslie
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auto mega power ball picker
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lottery
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Re: lottery
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Re: A Lottery System That Works!
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How to win lottery
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