Sure but the payoff was 27 million so even with 3 different winners they would have made money... Actually, since they only spent 5 million, the biggest danger was the winning numbers being on a ticket not bought because of lack of time...
but if the number that hits is a pattern which is used by many ( like a cross or criss cross) the hit ratio might be higher than 3...
I would take that black swan event as a risk... The best way to do this kind of game is to become a lottery distributor with a few dozen machines, thus you make money on the commission too and also on the winning ticket (sellers get a bonus for selling the winning ticket)...
I wonder how many people they had in their group to raise that kind of capital and how many people they have to split it between.
How about this angle: BSAM & ElCubano camp - you say trading is gambling because in both cases outcome is uncertain. Fair enough. But. If I buy 1 share I own something tangible, if I make a bet on the other hand all I have is an agreement that a winner shall collect a loser's stake. Basically nothing tangible is owned. You pointed out similarities, I pointed to a difference. So. I say, all variables have to line up for the 2 to become 1. Apples & oranges are both fruit, yet are different in so many ways. Though both are fruit, they taste, feel, smell, digest in very different ways. Just like in trading and gambling, in both cases you can win & lose money, though the way you win & lose money differ, hence you have 2 different words - trading & gambling or apples & oranges P.S. How does one hedge a hand in Blackjack? Hmm...
Some interesting posts here, but a lot of them are about coin tossing and statistics and not trading. I'll give an example. Price x has held previously to a certain amount of contracts traded, the market has now sold back into price x, and there are not enough buyers comming in for price x to hold again, so the market wants to trade below price x. I'm selling price x, right? What is gambling about this? Dackster.
the problem is that you are assuming that there aren't enough buyers coming in for price x. and you are also assuming that the market wants to trade below price x. these two beliefs are conditioning you to sell at price x. but the market is dynamic, and it could very well be that sentiment changes suddenly, thereby producing buyers at price x and even above it.. there is no certainty. that is why its akin to gambling.
Have you considered that all things in life, apart from death, are uncertain. Even though all the things have uncertain outcomes we use different words to describe those activities, we don't call a marriage a gamble, lots of similarities, yet we don't do that. The ones that do, shouldn't be married in the first place. P.S. How do you hedge a marriage? With a prenup. Not a gamble