A geological statistician in Canada figured out algorithm flaws in the 'random' way scratcher lotto tickets are designed. Spending as little as a few hours (sometimes up to a day) with a few scratched-off tickets, this guy was able to spot correlations between the visible and hidden parts of the tickets. This allows you to tell which will be winners and which will be losers with a statistically higher average than just guessing.

The guy proved it on a few games in Canada and in the states. But the scratcher games are designed by private companies; when he contacted them they did not want to acknowledge the issue. Doesn't mean the problems does exist!

There have been a few studies of lotto winnings that showed that a very few people have won the bulk of the money. The lotto may also provide a way to launder dirty money with a fairly high rate of return.