...Massachusetts lottery.  Some math wizards figured out that when the jackpot reached $2 million, they could win it by buying $100,000 worth of tickets.  They spent $40 million over 7 years and wound up with $48 million.  All perfectly legal.

...or only about 3% a year.  Still, $8 million isn't anything to sneeze at.

Whew, I had to use ALL my fingers and toes to figure that one out.

There is no way to figure their return. It could be as high as 400 to 1,500%.

If they won the 2 million prize on the first $100,000 of tickets they bought the whole operation could have been self funding without any out of pocket.

Then you have the pay schedule of the lottery. How many $3, 5, 10, $25 dollar winners do you get out of 100,000 tickets which would cut your cost and up you yield, not to mention the timing of those wins.