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Comment by discardorama | Hacker News Reader

> The problem is the same as that for insider trading on the stock market:

Nope, not at all. These people are playing by the rules. The lottery officials are aware of their play; and yet don't consider it illegal. There is nothing wrong with using your superior skillset legally to make some money.

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The question was why should the lottery have a problem with that, not what the law is. If you design a game--whether it's a lottery or a market--that allows some an advantage others don't have or reasonably expect to get, then that's a bad design.

It's a lottery. The masses aren't playing it because they think it's equitable, the masses are playing it because they lack critical thinking skills.

As long as people think they can get rich quick, it's a good design.

IMO it's not the students that are in the wrong, it's the officials. The fact that they knew about this loophole and didn't nothing to close it is tantamount to bribery if you ask me.

Isn't this the same argument that gets you thrown out of casinos for counting cards?

If the game has a bug that only a few players know about, it isn't fair, by definition.

But a casino does not consider counting cards legal. Hence the boot.

Consider, for example, one of those "how many marbles are in this jar?" games. If I use my knowledge of math and physics to derive a pretty accurate estimate, it's not wrong, is it?

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