Implementation: This lotto hedge fund would earn a profit on small markups on all purchases, transaction fees, and interest on money in its accounts. Following the insight of the Toronto-based quant profiled in Wired’s story, elite clients might even pay more for a more labor-intensive hack on the tickets. Legal problems could follow, however. For example, certain tickets can only be bought in person (with cash only), but you could operate the business as a bank with buying representatives in every state. This ambitious venture would also require a huge influx of cash to start, but the profits could be large. Inevitably a state might try to stop the company’s activities, so a crack legal team might be an important asset for what would surely be an interesting legal battle.
Attribution: Erik Michaels-Ober
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