[1] http://investpost.org/mutual-funds/group-invests-5-million-t...
If it becomes super easy to purchase millions of lottery tickets, then any arbitrageur would likely be dissuaded because the risk of someone else doing it (and having to share the winnings) go up by a ton. You could still have collusion, but that should be enforceable by laws against collusion I'd hope.
It this case there were rules to prevent arbitrage that were basically just not enforced by the lottery commission, and that's really the only reason this was possible.
Are you arguing this is counter to the purpose because the net revenue will be diminished by the certain expense of the payoff?
Where you are born, what ethnicity you are, how rich your parents are, how healthy, athletic, brainy, beautiful you are, what you eat, how you live, nothing in any part of your life is "fair".
So sure, play the lottery if you like, but don't pretend it's fair. Indeed the unfairness of the winning is entirely the point of it.
Of course if you are playing the lottery and dreaming of a better life, you already know how unfair life really is.
My parents did not teach me that fairness was a virtue. They taught me that "life's not fair". With the unspoken addendum of "deal with it".
I guess I won the lottery in that respect.
it's just that optimum stopped being "zero tickets bought" and instead shifted to "all tickets bought"
If the state wants to encourage this kind of large scale game playing, then they should outline the process for taking part in it clearly and ensure everyone has equal access to the tools that enabled it.
Group buys add a social context that has significant value too.
This is the literal answer to "why." Also bans on various casino hacks.
The same thing happens in sports betting, where retail punters absolutely hate if someone places a bet online during a game exactly after a goal was scored, but before the odds move. So even sports betting exchanges like Betfair forbid this kind of arbitrage and void it. Not because they really care, but because it annoys the other players.
Also, not a risk as such, but it ensures that the jackpot will only ever reach a certain level.
They feel it's "unfair" to allow others to make 100% certain arbitrage bets.