We have used them on the trading floor for 35 years to motivate people to sell something. Sell a inventory truck/carload of lumber get a NH scratch ticket.
In all that time, with thousands of tickets bought by individual traders and management, we have only had one big winner($5000) off a $1 scratch ticket in 35 years.
This guy knows statistics. Simple math for some. Harder for most others. He knew that there was ONE remaining ticket for $5 million. His only issue was IF someone else bought that one ticket before he did.
This is similar to card counting in Black Jack. However, most people can not count the amount of Jacks, Queens, Kings and 10’s left in 6 decks of cards. The people who can are not allowed to visit casinos. The book “Bringing down the House” was based on MIT & Harvard math majors and the professor that figured out a system how to do this.
Other people have figured out how to beat state lottery games in the past. Most of them are math majors. Some are even college professors.
Years ago I bought a how-to book on card counting. I just didn't have the patience and concentration to stick with it. Though I got pretty good practicing at home when one deck was being used. There's a couple of places in North Vegas that still offer single-deck blackjack but I think they offset that with 6:5 blackjack payouts, which is an awful deal for any blackjack player.