
MIT students scammed State Lottery for $8 million - instakill
http://www.nydailynews.com/mit-students-scammed-massachusetts-state-lottery-8-million-report-article-1.1128482
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pg
Incidentally, this was one of the best answers we've ever had to the question
on the application that asks you to describe some system you've hacked.

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Hitchhiker
Pretty shameful stuff. MIT expanded as muggers in training is perhaps an
accolade the institute wants to distance itself from.

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ColinWright
Discussion/comments: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4340852>

Also: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4327463>

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nicholassmith
Its hardly scamming when you play the rules to maximum effect.

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tptacek
Not that I want to look for reasons to cast aspersions on hackers or for that
matter defend characteristically poor writing at a tabloid like the NY Daily
News, but the money these people won came from normal people playing the game
in good faith; they weren't screwing over casinos.

If you think this is just "playing the rules to maximum effect", that's fine,
but consider whether that sentiment will cost you in a later debate about Wall
Street.

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nicholassmith
Hm, I'll agree, however where does the money from a casino come from? Ordinary
people losing, creating casino profit which ends up back on the table for
someone to play to win. At the end of the day the money comes from somewhere,
often at the expense of a losing party. So when someone figures a way to con
the system they're often taking money lost by people who played in good faith
and it didn't work.

Plus with Wall Street whilst they play the rules to maximum effect, they often
seem to step outside the rules and they're frequently not just playing with
the $10 Joe Smith paid on Friday for his ticket, but with the entire
retirement savings of Bill Brown.

It's pretty morally shady whichever way you cut it, but there's definite
shades in there.

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debacle
I don't understand how this is unethical. Maybe I'm missing something.

Back in college, one of the guys I worked with would manage a 'numbers' game
for one of his 'uncles.' He had an encyclopedic knowledge how the state
lottery worked, and how to prevent oneself from falling afoul of state laws
with regards to gambling.

Like any gambling, the house always wins - in this instance, the house is the
state or whatever corporate entity that the state leases its legalized stupid
tax operation to.

It says they had 8 million in winnings, but they spent nearly 40 million
dollars to secure that 8 million in winnings. That's 20% ROI over seven years.
They could have put the money in a CD and earned almost as much or more.

