August 09, 2004

'Just a business transaction'

We're not about to urge people to try making a living out of playing the lottery, but for a couple of guys in Missouri, figuring out the math behind the luck turned a Pick 3 game into a sure thing.

The numbers the lottery drew in Thursday's midday Pick 3 game were 4-5-2 in the regular drawing and 1-4-4 in a bonus drawing that Seidel says guaranteed him a 20 percent return on the $23,000 of chances he and his friends bought, at $1 a pop.

That was an easy $4,600 in profit that they cashed in on Thursday afternoon and Friday.

"It was just a business transaction," Seidel said of the plan Friday, after reaping the bulk of his winnings from a Dierbergs store, where a manager ushered him and his friends in a back room to dole out several thousand dollars.


Posted by tgibbons at August 9, 2004 03:02 PM