A lot of the probability you learn in high school came about because people wanted to understand certain games of chance.

The thing described here is a good example. It sounds like there were some underpriced bonds that were also lottery coupons, and Voltaire scooped them up.

The history of people trying to beat games of chance with math is incredibly interesting.

Take Ed Thorp. He actually built a machine to measure how fast the ball was going round a roulette table, out of the very first transistors on the market. Yes, back when computers were stored in a house. If you look at the odds though, the house advantage is only slight in most casino games. A small tilt can favour the player.

Ed and a load of MIT people also went on to break Blackjack through a hole in the implementation. Turns out if you don't reshuffle often, the odds change and you can devise a system for winning.

Yet another group of MIT kids did the lottery thing again.