Helen:
But it has been done. Some years ago a bunch of people in Australia got together and hatched a shceme to buy every number combination in the Virginia lottery after it had swollen to a payout of several times the number of dollars it took to "buy the wheel". That's a term that bears looking at here, so this is really a word post!
Anyway, they went to the headquarters of a retailer in Virginia which had access to lots and lots of the machines, and they began spewing out the tickets. Due to time restraints they were unable to purchase all of the tickets, but they did hit the big winner and as you said an impossible number of other winners.
BUT! The Virginia Lottery Commission said that they would not pay off on the tickets because their rules specifically required the money to be forked over in cash at the site that actually sold the ticket. And of course the Australian combine had paid by cashier's check at the headquarters of the retailer.
So what happened? In a time-honored tradition, the combine sued and eventually won. The Lottery Commission had to pay out an annuity, but lawyers' fees ate up so much they members of the combine got only a little bit more than if they had put out their money at interes, certainly a safer way to accumulate wealth.
The kicker is, though, that if there had been five or six tickets sold with all six numbers, the combine would have lost money. Buying the wheel IS a risk.
TEd (who followed this with great interest because of the audacity shown on both sides)
