Forum: Author Hangout

Ouch, that's awkward.

Something weird: although your response is the second post in this thread, when I first looked only sharkjcw and Ross had posted replies.

AJ

Something weird: although your response is the second post in this thread, when I first looked only sharkjcw and Ross had posted replies.

That can happen with the way the servers propagate across the Internet. The server places the entries in order based on the timestamp in it, but if it takes a while to get from my system to the server a message submitted to the Internet after mine may get to the server first and be repeated around the Internet before mine arrives.

Often happens to me because of the electrons getting slowed down after getting waterlogged crossing under the Pacific Ocean in the cable. Also, it doesn't help now I bounce off an satellite to get to my ISP before it gets bounced around Australia prior to being pumped into the cable.

Thank you. Do you have to show ID to collect the $500.00?

AJ

No, I wrote the novella years ago. In an idle moment while Windows froze in order to swap virtual memory around, I thought it would be interesting to extend the concept of repeated wins but staying under the radar.

If Visa achieve their aims to enforcing a cashless society on us, the whole point becomes moot.

AJ

I thought it was the governments who don't want any money to go untaxed.

Yes and no. The current UK regime is making noises about cash-in-hand payments, but previous regimes have recognised the contribution made by the black economy.

Even if cash payments are banned, there will still be payment in kind. LETS schemes are based on the principle of tax-free payment in kind.

VISA has apparently been trialling a scheme in the USA whereby they bribe small retailers to go cashless.

AJ

IRS will know about substantial wins, and will take their money off the top,

I don't know about other states but the CA Lottery only withholds and sends the IRS 25% of the payout amount. CA is also one of the states that doesn't tax lottery winnings.

I don't know about other states but the CA Lottery only withholds and sends the IRS 25% of the payout amount. CA is also one of the states that doesn't tax lottery winnings.

I think the 25% is the standard amount the IRS takes up front everywhere. What you actually owe on April 15 may be another matter. Kansas is one of the states that taxes lottery winnings.

I think the 25% is the standard amount the IRS takes up front everywhere.

25% is the standard IRS withholding tax rate for any income paid out within the USA that's not related to a direct salary or wage. I know about this because I had to look into it when I had to sign some forms for the correct amount to withheld from my book royalties. If you don't fill in the proper paperwork they keep a much higher amount of 40% for some situations and 50% for others.

Thanks, but the protagonist would be more concerned about remaining anonymous from the lottery organisers. They wouldn't be very happy to discover that someone has discovered a way of winning regularly and, if the general public found out, it could destroy confidence in all lotteries.

AJ

Thanks, but the protagonist would be more concerned about remaining anonymous from the lottery organisers. They wouldn't be very happy to discover that someone has discovered a way of winning regularly and, if the general public found out, it could destroy confidence in all lotteries.

You could have him set up near where the borders of three or four states come together and he can play the lotteries in each states - but pick ones who don't have the same management group, so they won't know who the winners are in the other states.

Say he sets up in Fayetteville, Arkansas he can buy tickets in the Arkansas lotteries, a short drive to Tulsa, Oklahoma to buy tickets there, and a short drive to Branson, Missouri to buy their tickets, while Pittsburg, Kansas isn't too far away to hit their lotteries. Also, based in Morgantown, West Virginia puts him in easy range of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Washington, D.C. Also, From Philadelphia he can buy in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia with ease, and even reach New York without too much trouble. From Memphis, Tennessee he can hit Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Missouri, Kentucky as well. Lots of places like that.

typo edit

The Northeast Corridor is densely populated with several states within a close drive.

True, but check this for people sharing winner names:

http://www.naspl.org/regions

Region 1
Atlantic Lottery
Connecticut Lottery Corporation
Delaware State Lottery
Loto-Quebec
Maine State Lottery
Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency
Massachusetts State Lottery Commission
New Hampshire Lottery Commission
New Jersey Division of State Lottery
New York State Gaming Commission
Rhode Island Lottery
The Pennsylvania Lottery
Vermont Lottery Commission

but pick ones who don't have the same management group, so they won't know who the winners are in the other states.

Won't work Ernie. There is only one lottery drawing for all states. The states control what happens as far as selling tickets and paying winnings within their states, but they work in conjunction with the commission that conducts the Lottery. The Power Ball Lottery is a good example. I don't know the name of the organization that runs that lottery, but for this discussion let's call it the commission.

The overall commission authorizes the US State Commissions to promote the lottery and sell tickets. Tickets are also sold in Canada and I think in other countries. In the US, the states control the specifics of ticket sales and the specifics of collecting winnings. The State lottery commissions turnover the money they collected from the sale of the tickets to the overall commission, and the commission returns the money to the states' commissions to pay the ticket sellers and winners. if one person were to win multiple major drawings, the commission would have the personal information the winner must submit on their claim form in order to collect their winnings.

They wouldn't be very happy to discover that someone has discovered a way of winning regularly and, if the general public found out, it could destroy confidence in all lotteries.

I addressed that general issue in Chapter 15 of my story Time Scope 2. Feel free to use anything I addressed if it helps.

I addressed that general issue in Chapter 15 of my story Time Scope 2.

So, to win the lottery a human needs an Altairian companion! Remind me, do Zldats consider themselves Altairian?

Was the 70% claim supposed to be accurate, or just to throw the Earth authorities off the scent?

AJ

No, No, and off the scent

ETA: Altairians come from Altar. Zyldats come from Minnus.

Thanks.

I was having difficulty reconciling the 70% with the two for two lottery wins ;)

AJ

A big flaw in my story outline is how little you can do with cash. In the UK cash is no longer accepted on some transport systems, and buying and operating a car would be impossible too. I presume the USA is heading that way too.

So my putative protagonist would have to have a day job to 'launder' the money from the lottery winnings. :(

AJ

You would probably be better off having your main character win a foreign lottery such as the Irish Sweepstakes to completely avoid involvement with his own government.

The IRS monitors foreign sweepstakes for US winners. They want their share right away.

In both cases they'd have to track expenses and lodge tax returns as a professional gambler.

That would ruin the concept of flying under the radar.

I've read or watched many fictional stories about gamblers who come up with a winning system, but the bottom line is always card-counting or fixed races or weighted lottery balls or position and speed calculations of roulette balls etc. I envisage a story in which the protagonist uses distributional maths and computer calculations, but computers are an anathema to casinos.

AJ

My hypothesis was it may be possible to infer the numbers others choose least often from the payouts being higher when they came up.

In the UK lottery, birthday numbers and multiples of 7 are the ones publicly proclaimed to be most often selected by gamblers.

As to your achievement in obtaining a positive return, didn't that once happen with one of the Australian lotteries, forcing the organisers to bring in a similar ticket-limitation rule?

AJ

I envisage a story in which the protagonist uses distributional maths and computer calculations, but computers are an anathema to casinos.

If he's playing poker or any other card game and doing it all in his head the casinos are going to have a hard time proving what he's doing. If he makes constant major wins in the millions they'll end up accusing him and banning him, but if he comes about about or ten grand a head each weekend they'll likely not do much.

Unfortunately the chances of my writing an accurate poker story are slightly smaller than winning a lottery jackpot. :(

AJ

Unfortunately the chances of my writing an accurate poker story are slightly smaller than winning a lottery jackpot.

It'd be a shame if you asked someone on here who plays No Limit Texas Hold-em at a semi-professional level (meaning I haven't won, or for that matter, even cashed, in any major tournaments, but I do end up winning more each year than I lose) for advice.

It'd be a shame if you asked...for advice.

I'm probably being thick but I don't understand that. Are you saying I should attempt a poker story with my zero knowledge without asking advice, or did you perhaps omit a negative?

AJ

I'm probably being thick but I don't understand that. Are you saying I should attempt a poker story with my zero knowledge without asking advice, or did you perhaps omit a negative?

Trying to sound slightly sarcastic was all, which apparently didn't work. In this internet age, we tend to forget that sometimes the best thing to do is to ask a group that we associate with if someone else has actual knowledge of something.

In other words, hey, if you're concerned about writing a story about how poker is played, why not just make a post saying "Hey, I'd like to write a story about poker. Does anyone on here play regularly and well enough that they could help make it believable?"

You might get told told no ... and you might get told yes. Doesn't hurt to ask. (Oh, and in case you didn't figure out from the bit in the middle, that was me saying I'm a resource that if you want to send me an e-mail to figure out how to make poker believable, just ask.)

which apparently didn't work.

Right, so I was being thick!

I'm a resource

Thanks, but I'll leave poker stories to people who have some experience. I've enjoyed reading a few here, despite not understanding the game.

AJ

The same situation will occur in my next scene when the teens play Monopoly. It's about the conversations that take place, how it turns into a strip version and the reactions to that - but I'd like to have a certain amount of realistic description of the game as other play unfolds.

The UK street names, whether new or old, might discombobulate SOL's primarily US readership ;)

I wonder whether there's an Aussie version: "I've landed on the University of Wallamaroo!"

AJ

There are hundreds of specialized versions of monopoly these days. http://monopoly.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Monopoly_Games_(Board)

Thanks.

I wish that website listed property names :(

AJ

I was looking at Strip Monopoly

Many years ago, I used to have a computerized version of that. It went well passed the strip and included assorted sexual acts as well.

And a google search shows the rules for the game:
http://userpages.umbc.edu/~thuff1/monopoly.html

f he's playing poker or any other card game and doing it all in his head the casinos are going to have a hard time proving what he's doing. If he makes constant major wins in the millions they'll end up accusing him and banning him, but if he comes about about or ten grand a head each weekend they'll likely not do much.

Playing blackjack - where you're playing against the casino - yeah, there will be issues.

But you're incorrect regarding poker, because the casino is a disinterested third party. The players sitting around the table aren't playing against the casino - they're playing against each other. All the casino does is provide the dealer and a place for people to play. They take their rake off each hand, or their 'dealer appreciation' from the entry fee on a tournament, and they don't care if a player wins or not.

And if you end up winning major tournaments - maybe even several of them - all you do is end up being compared to Stu Unger. Realistically if you simply played the WSOP Main event and made it to the final table, you'd end up with more than $1,000,000 each time you did so. (This years winner picked up over $8 million.) And picking up 10 bracelets for winning other events - great, you're the next Phil Hellmuth.

It'd actually be pretty easy to live in Vegas, work 4 - 6 hours per day, 5 days a week, going to different casinos each night to play in their daily tournaments or their cash games, and pick off the suckers. Couple of guys I regularly play with know people that do just that. And they make a fairly decent living doing so.

The son of a former work colleague gave up his college degree course because he was making so much money playing on-line poker tournaments. He basically worked night-shifts so he could milk US players.

AJ

The son of a former work colleague gave up his college degree course because he was making so much money playing on-line poker tournaments. He basically worked night-shifts so he could milk US players.

The whole 10,000 hour thing on professionalism comes into play here. Back when online poker wasn't as strictly regulated as it is now, I was doing something similar. My specialty was the $20 sit'n'go - you'd sign up for a tournament, 6 or 10 players, and once the table was full, the tournament would start. Out of every 10 games, I'd typically win 2 and cash in another 4.

The transition is when you switch to live poker. You can know all the odds, be able to calculate all the percentages in your head, but when you're playing face to face against someone else, that's when it gets challenging. Online you typically only have a short time (30 seconds or less) to respond. Playing live, the other player can go 'in the tank' and just sit for 3 or 4 minutes, plus you can actually see each other's faces and hands.

Casino Royale exaggerated it for the movie, but a tell can be a costly thing. (And the final hand in that movie game made no sense whatsoever from a poker perspective, but that's another discussion.)

What you could do is have them play the daily pick 3 or pick 4, but your top prize is only going to be a few hundred dollars.

That's quite a good suggestion, since 'a few hundred dollars' flies under the radar. Unfortunately the UK doesn't have such a game, and I suspect the format is quite rare outside North America (is that the married name of North Kardashian West after she marries Captain America?)

AJ

Powerball and Mega-Millions are the two we have here in Oklahoma - which have a central authority.

In an earlier post to Ernest, I defined the way the lottery works using Power Ball as an example; I was partially wrong. While checking on something about the lottery, I came across something I was not aware of. I would provide a reference, but when I went back, I couldn't find the article I read.

According to the article, there is a single overall organization that controls a lottery such as Power Ball. The same organization may control all of the lotteries, or there may be individual organizations; I don't know. There are also State Lottery Commissions that run the lottery programs within the respective states.

The money received from all ticket sales within a state is collected by the respective State Lottery Commission. A portion of each ticket sale is paid to the overall organization and the money received by them is used for the Grand Prize, which the overall organization pays to the winner(s) regardless of the state in which the winner lives. This is true of all lotteries where the Grand Prize can be won by a person living in any state.

The remaining money collected from ticket sales belongs to the respective State Lottery Commission. That money is used by the State Lottery Commissions to pay the vendors who sell the tickets, the other costs of running their state lottery, and the winners of the lesser prizes. That would include scratchers and the lesser prizes of the Power Ball, Mega-Millions, Lotto, etc.

That sounds like a variant of the horse-race prediction scam that occasionally rears its head.

Unfortunately that's not 'my' story. I'm rather attached to the idea of someone 'breaking' the system.

AJ