Hey! Here’s a great money making opportunity using the lottery. And it’s endorsed by Google, Apple, Yahoo, Morningstar, and Microsoft!

As regular readers know, our posts are usually on a 6-month lag, but this one is so important I had to share it with you right away.

Paul Alper points us to an online video promoting something called Lotto Champ, which describes itself as “a cutting-edge tool designed to help lottery players make more informed choices. By analyzing data and patterns, LottoChamp offers personalized number suggestions, providing a smarter approach to playing. It takes the guesswork out of the lottery experience, enabling a more confident and strategic play.” It provides “tailored sets of numbers” and costs a mere $197.

As a statistician, this claim of effectiveness surprised me. Most obviously, if the lottery is run well, the numbers are random so there’s no way to predict them, and even if there’s some flaw in the randomization, the vig of the lottery is huge that it’s highly implausible that any edge would be enough to make you money in expectation. The next obvious point is that the lottery numbers are the same for everyone, so the concept of a “personalized number suggestion” makes no sense.

And, yeah, yeah, I know what you’re gonna say: if it’s the powerball then at least you can avoid commonly picked numbers (hint: avoid numbers between 1 and 31) so that, if you do win, you’re less likely to split the prize. I was still under the impression that it was still a losing bet, and that it would be bad news bad news if you’re such an addict that you’d even consider spending $197 on this. And, again, I thought that “tailored sets of numbers” made no sense.

But what do I know? I’m just a simple country statistician, I’m no lottery expert. The real experts are on the internet.

So I googled *Lotto Champ* to see what came up, and I saw some things like this:

and this:

OK, so some ads and some reviews. The reviews are unusual in that they use advertising promotional language and are full of links to the site, encouraging you to buy. I guess these reviewers are really excited about the product! There’s no way that these could be fake reviews, inserted just to suck customers in. Doing such a thing would be immoral, and there’s no reason to think that someone selling lottery tips for $197 would be immoral. On the contrary, they’re trying to help people!

Then this:

Hey, thanks, Google, for providing this valuable information!

Ahhh, but scroll down on the page and you’ll find some warnings:

Now I’m concerned. I’ll first click on the site from “ACCESS newswire.” This seems like a legitimate source, and here’s what they say:

Lotto Champ Reviews & Complaints 2025: What You Need to Know Before Buying This AI Software

AUSTIN, TX / ACCESS Newswire / June 9, 2025 / Lottery games are always considered a game of chance that cannot be rigged. But have you considered the fact that since it is a game made by humans, it will have a set pattern that can be cracked? Well, this realization was what led to the creation of the Lotto Champ lottery prediction tool. This is an AI-powered software built to eliminate the guesswork from the lottery games.

Whew! For a moment there I was concerned that this lottery numbers thing might be a scam. It’s a relief to learn from this independent news source that it will “eliminate the guesswork from the lottery games.” huh? Sounds like a great deal–my only question is why they only charge $197 for this wonderful innovation? My guess is that the people at Lotto Champ are just very nice, and they want ordinary people to be able to make money too. The news story continues:

The basis of the program is that it is powered by artificial intelligence tools that have access to a huge collection of publicly available data on the lottery games of the country. This huge dataset that has historical winning patterns, ongoing lottery games, and future games will help the AI choose the best game with the biggest winning odds and payouts for the customer.

Wow–cool!

The article continues:

Understanding how the Lotto Champ software works is simple. Before getting deep into that . . .

The article goes on for a few zillion more paragraphs without ever “getting into that.” I guess the authors of the review were so excited that they forgot to put in their simple-yet-deep explanation of how it works. But, don’t worry, I’m already convinced that it works. And for only $197, I don’t need to know how it works, I can just live off the steady stream of money it will provide me:

The main aim of this Lotto Champ review was to present a comprehensive analysis of this new lottery prediction tool that has garnered all the attention. The lottery game is one of the most sought-after and celebrated games in the gambling world. People bet their chances on the belief that they are lucky and will get a bigger win.

Even though this is the basis of the lottery game, this lottery prediction tool is introduced for players who want to make their wins more consistent and get a stable income from this game.

It’s good that the Lotto Champ system really works. Because if it didn’t–if lottery numbers really were indistinguishable from random and unpredictable in any useful way, then it would just be evil to feed the deluded fantasies of gambling addicts. It would have the potential to ruin people’s lives. But we don’t have to worry about that.

Oh, and what about the other link above? It’s from www.msn.com and it’s entitled, “Lotto Champ Reviews (SCAM WARNING!!).” SCAM Warning . . . that’s pretty scary? And msn.com is a legitimate news site. From wikipedia:

MSN is a web portal and related collection of Internet services and apps provided by Microsoft. The main home page provides news, weather, sports, finance and other content curated from hundreds of different sources that Microsoft has partnered with.

OK, you may not be the biggest fan of Word and Excel, but Microsoft is a mainstream institution, and it doesn’t seem unreasonable that they’d have a webpage warning you off some internet scam.

So I better click on the link and go to msn.com to see the full story, whose full title is “Lotto Champ Reviews (SCAM WARNING!!) Can This AI-Powered Software Help To Win Lottery Multiple Times?” Here’s what msn.com reports:

Lotto Champ is an advanced AI-powered software that is specifically developed to increase the chances of winning lotteries. It provides a more strategic approach and leverages AI-powered technology to generate numbers that have a higher probability of winning.

It analyses past lottery results based on data-driven insights and tends to predict the best possible combinations. It optimizes your selections and enhances your odds compared to traditional random choices. Lotto Champ provides an intelligent analysis of the historical data and takes the guesswork out of the equation.

Hey, thanks, Bill Gates! I was worried that Lotto Champ was a scam. I’m glad you cleared this up. Now that a reputable source has confirmed that it’s cool, I can confidently send them my $197.

It’s a good thing that Lotto Champ is providing a legitimate and valuable service, otherwise Microsoft would be promoting a scam on its own branded website (no, this article is not labeled as an advertisement, and its url begins with innocuous root, https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/techandscience/).

But now I’m still kind of concerned so I google “lotto champ scam,” which reveals a pile of videos and text links saying how wonderful it all is.

These Lotto Champ people must have done an awesome job at search engine optimization. Good for them! They’re providing a valuable service for a mere $197. It’s the least they can do to spread the work on the internet, especially to those skeptics who might naively think that a lottery-promotion system is a scam.

And good job, Google! You’re not just promoting a wonderful scheme to win the lottery, I guess you also made some money selling slots on your search pages. I guess that’s why your motto is “Don’t be evil”: you’re helping people and making money at the same time! What could be moral than that.

On the other hand, if you’re a potential customer who’s lucky enough to google “Is Lotto Champ a scam,” the first link is this no-holds-barred youtube video by Jordan Liles shooting them down. What a party pooper! C’mon, Jordan Liles, you’re just jealous of all those people who live a comfortable life playing the lottery–and for a mere $197 investment! You can make all the videos you want; I don’t care.

I also came across a review titled “Lotto Champ Reviews (EXPOSED)” at morningstar.com. Hey, Morningstar’s a reputable company too! So I was scared about the exposé. But, not to worry, click through and read the article and it’s all about how great the system is. It even includes links so you can go buy it directly! Good for you, Morningstar! Like Google, you’re helping the ordinary Joe and you’re also taking sweet sweet advertising dollars. Again, I breathe a sigh of relief that Lotto Champ really does what it says. Otherwise mighty Morningstar would be enabling gambling addiction.

As with the other cases, the Morningstar review is not labeled as an advertisement. Indeed, it’s in the “Market News – Accesswire” section of their website. Market News from Morningstar . . . that sounds pretty legit!

Google also provides an “AI overview” informing us that Lotto Champ is “Backed by data: The software uses AI to analyze decades of past draw data to identify patterns and trends. This gives users a strategic approach instead of relying on luck or superstition.” Bafflingly, the AI review also says “The software cannot alter the fundamental randomness of a lottery drawing, and the ultimate outcome still depends on chance.”

That sounds like a contradiction to me! First it says it does not rely on luck, then it says the outcome depends on chance. Hey, that’s the Markov model for ya.

So, yeah, thanks Google!

And some other sites popped up associated with Apple and Yahoo, two more recognizable brand names have positive reviews (including helpful links to where you can spend your $197) on their webpages.

Before seeing all these entirely neutral third-party reviews, I was suspicious of the idea of an AI that could pick personal lottery numbers for you. But given that Google, Apple, Yahoo, Morningstar, and Microsoft all endorse it, I’m convinced.

Also, if Lotto Champ were really a scam, I’m sure the government would’ve already cracked down on them, just as they’ve already prosecuted cryptocurrency frauds, promoters of dangerous anti-vax misinformation, the mayor from some city, I can’t remember where, who was allegedly taking bribes from a middle eastern government, etc. One thing we know about the U.S. government is that they have no tolerance for crime and corruption.

In better times I’d say the government should crack down on this. Not just the lottery crap but the corruption of Google, Apple, Yahoo, Morningstar, MSN, etc etc, which are either actively promoting it or else are passively letting themselves be manipulated.

Selling lottery numbers is already a scam. But setting up a network of fake reviews with the implicit complicity of some of the world’s richest corporations, that takes it to the next level of evil.

I’m sure the internet is full of such things. I just hadn’t been aware.

In the meantime, remember that Reputation is a two-way street. If I were foolish enough to believe that Lotto Champ is a scam, I don’t think I’d ever trust anything on msn.com or Morningstar Market News or whatever. Or Yahoo, either, but I actually hadn’t been aware that Yahoo still exists. Fortunately, I have full trust in Lotto Champ, msn.com, and Morningstar. Lotto Champ deserves my $197, and Google, Microsoft, and Morningstar deserve every dollar that is given to them to run these valuable and informative reviews, and Google is wise to run its server farms 24/7 and burn up whatever remaining coal we have in the world in order to produce these very helpful AI overviews.

What I’d really like is for some rich guys to buy Reddit, Stack Overflow, and Wikipedia and convert them to sites that are as useful as those provided by Google, Microsoft, and Morningstar.

P.S. The above post is not intended to provide any financial advice. Spend any $197 at your own risk. Remember that $197 can be converted into 137 Jamaican beef patties, 1/85 of a conference featuring Gray Davis, Grover Norquist, and a rabbi, or 2 1/2 dinners of a soggy burger, sad-looking fries, and a quart of airport whisky. Spend your money wisely, kids!