Toronto Statistician Cracked Lottery Code

Mohan Srivastava figured out how to spot a winning scratch lottery ticket in 2003.

Don’t get too excited. Srivastava told the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission about his special skill, and they’ve rectified the flaw in their tickets so that his trick can’t be repeated. But for a while there the 52-year-old geological statistician could spot a winner at will, after he noticed that when certain numbers on the OLG’s Tic-Tac-Toe game lined up, it meant the ticket would pay out. He quickly crunched the numbers and figured out that to make a profit off of his discovery would be too much of a hassle and informed the proper authorities, who pulled the game from stores. It was the first time the OLG had ever recalled a game because a customer spotted a flaw.