Even though he knew the formula, at least where I buy lottery tickets, the person behind the counter gives you the ticket. Assuming there are many more losers then winners, without being able to select the tickets yourself, it would seem as though it'd be a losing proposition. Now, if you were the store owner and had access to the tickets yourself, that would be a different story.
It's not only an issue of rarely having control over which scratch-off card you'd like to pick, there's also the issue of most states having the majority of their games almost entirely hidden. Very few games allow you to see numbers or letters plainly - most require to you to scratch off "your" numbers and then scratch off the "board" as well.
They slide out the little display holding the type you're interested in and you sit and mull over the aura of winnitude of each of them. There would be little tolerance for someone looking at each individual card for a minute, though.
The Ontario lottery corporation has come down hard on retailers because, of course, they're the ones who generally ply these scams.
