The Lottery

[Heywood]

I call it a cheating system.

Always the contrarian, eh?

Try it out sometime. Let me know how you like Pound-Me-In-The-Ass prison.

Not all jurisdictions are as brutal as Nevada. If I were to use or have used such a cheating system. I would go across the pond.

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I've never played the lottery because of my bias against giving my money to the state. So the following is probably uninformed and seriously flawed.

I see reels of "scratch off" tickets at my grocery store. I am familiar with some scratch off sales promotions where a thick rubbery paint obscures an underlying text or icon. By scratching away the paint the underlying image is revealed which usually says something like 'you lost, try again.'
I expect imaging techniques have improved since this system was invented. What keeps an enterprising individual from peeking under the paint with some, I'm not sure what, technological help? Perhaps heat the surface slightly with an infra-red source then watch to see if there is a differential rate of cooling over the image vs ground. Non-contact mass spectrometry? X-rays? Positron emission blocked more by the ink underneath?
With the help of a 7-11 clerk after hours, you image the roll to find and mark the winners then make sure you are able to take them for yourselves as the roll is sold off.
Or is the information gained not helpful in determining if a ticket is a winner?

For myself, the effort isn't worth the probably unlikely payback. There are so many other 'honest' ways to make a buck. But the experimentalist in me can't help but speculate.

Sometimes it is possible to spot "variations" in the tickets which will tell you it is a winner or not without having to scratch them off.