[sennight]

I've wondered about the feasibility of using state run lotteries for laundering in a cash based criminal enterprise. The known odds of low cost/return scratch-offs and the need to only account for claimed winnings would make it tempting... if it wasn't so labor intensive.

[clavigne]

I don't think it would be a good idea, given that you'd have to claim the winnings. It might work once or twice but not over and over again.

Additionally in most cases I'd think the lottery odds would be lower than the cost of traditional laundering (smurfing, through crooked banks, using cash based businesses like taxis etc.) Especially if you have to pay people to buy tickets.

[sennight]

> It might work once or twice but not over and over again.

Except for when it does: there are a bunch of people who have repeatedly jackpotted state lotteries, they're usually described as 'reclusive mathematicians'. But that isn't what I'm talking about. I just checked the TX Lottery Commission's site and it looks like scratchoffs would run, worst case, a 30% return. I can't be bothered to calculate the upper bounds, but I'd expect it to be 40%-ish. That seems good to me, I especially like that you can skip the part where you have to drive out to some hotel to meet an undercover Secret Service agent pretending to be a Wells Fargo employee responding to your help wanted notice in Soldier of Fortune.

[Aeolun]

Isn’t it great that a lot of high-tech crime is prevented by the people capable of it being too lazy to bother?

[sennight]

I learned a long time ago that the most effective way to correct a vice is to play it against another vice, sloth being an easy goto. But in this case... I'm not a drug dealer, so I don't need to launder large amounts of small bills. But... if I wanted to launder a bunch of public ledger based crypto: instead of a using a loud and proud "bitcoin tumbler", I'd use something like satoshibet. Of course, that is likely why the original no longer exists - and I imagine anyone standing up a replacement (without a sufficiently invasive KYC implementation) would face similar hostility. Anyway, I expect that'll change when a state run satoshibet eventually emerges.

[edoceo]

Cant go wrong with Quick Pick.