A Better Way to Buy Lottery Scratch-off Tickets
Skip Garibaldi, IDA Center for Communications Research, La Jolla
Chan Stanek Ross Lecture for Students

Saturday, August 9
MAA MathFest 2025

Abstract: You may have seen news stories about people who seem to be strategically and systematically buying up lottery scratch-off tickets. What might they have been up to? This talk is about the answer proposed by a reporter, which defies the intuition we learn in school. With a little calculus, we can analyze the idea and see how it might play out in reality.

Biography: Skip Garibaldi is a mathematician who has been writing scholarly articles about the lottery for 15 years. His lottery work has led to changes in state policy, law enforcement investigations, TV interviews, and a video for Wired. Some mathematicians will know him better for his work on algebraic groups. Skip is the director of the IDA Center for Communications Research in La Jolla, California. Previously, he was associate director of the Institute for Pure & Applied Mathematics at UCLA and Winship Distinguish Research Professor at Emory University. He is a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society and has received the Lester R. Ford Award and the Air Force Commander’s Public Service Award. He grew up just down the road from MathFest, in neighboring Solano County. He sometimes buys lottery tickets.