Massachusetts 'Cash WinFall' game not exactly chancy if you know the angles
Play a Massachusetts state lottery game called Cash WinFall during the right time periods — a few days every three months — and with a hefty enough upfront investment – hundreds of thousands of dollars – and you are all but certain to come out a big winner.
A small number of sharpies have figured out how to do this, without breaking any laws or regulations, and are apparently walking away with millions at the expense of all those hapless losers who play the game whenever the mood strikes and with only a fistful of dollars at their disposal, according to a terrific story in the Boston Globe on Sunday.
What strikes me as most remarkable about the scheme is not that smart, well-funded individuals can figure out a way to game a state lottery.
What’s most remarkable is that lottery officials in Massachusetts have apparently been aware of this lucrative loophole for years and have done nothing to plug the leak. In fact, they seem to be of the opinion that nothing is amiss.
From the Globe story:
But lottery officials say the game is successful, generating a respectable $11.8 million in profits in 2011 even though the agency sometimes pays out more money than it takes in during (those time periods when the sharpies rule). Lottery officials say they more than offset the cost of (those) weeks over the rest of the year.
“It’s a niche game for a different audience,” explained Paul Sternburg, the lottery’s executive director. “You want to bring in as many players as possible. Some people chase a huge jackpot. Others are looking at odds.”
In other words, as long as no one’s literally cheating – and, of course, we are getting our cut — we couldn’t care less if the casual players are getting their pockets picked by the sharpies.
This from a state that threatened to put online poker players in jail back before the federal government made that an empty threat by chasing all the online poker parlors off the U.S. corner of the Internet.
It’s just another example of the stunning hypocrisy that rules when it comes to governments and gambling.
However, something tells me this little Cash WinFall club is not long for this world.
The publicity – and attendant howls of protest — should generate enough heat from lawmakers to convince the lottery officials to get off their butts and do the right thing by their not-so-sharp players.
And, if that doesn’t happen, there certainly will be more than enough well-financed imitators drawn to the game to give the sharpies a run for their money.
Either way, the golden goose goes away.
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