Except "counting the cards" in the lottery version is trivial compared to doing it for real. Like the article said, he taught it to his eight year old daughter.

Right: that is the perfect target for the math abilities of the average lottery player. Do a controlled loss on one game, receive PR bonanza and watch as millions of lottery winners learn how to "outsmart" the lottery, introduce Game 2 with the same mechanic and cards which are countable in a fashion which is not exploitable, and watch as ticket sales soar.

This would be evil, of course, but if you're running a lottery your entire business is stealing money from poor people.

Not just poor people. The stoopid as well.

Now maybe smart poor people. This vision doesn't inspire.

Not "stealing" from people, but "milking" them.

or people well assume it's an inside job from the start. That the majority of winning tickets are snatched up before they ever show up at the gas station.

buy a corner store or gas station with other clean(er) money, and become a lottery ticket merchant. place winners on your customers to keep people coming back.

the hunch is that it will pay out, but not how much. what if this woman in texas had 5 marked "winners" from a dirty merchant "placed" on her when she bought it to avoid a misplaced accusation?