Invented by a data scientist: the first anti-scam – AnalyticBridge.

An interesting concept: create a lottery which is really a disguised form of savings. That’s not quite what this proposal does, but it could be modified very easily.

From what I read, accumulating savings is a big problem for many poor people. Some nonetheless play the lottery. Create a lottery-squared, which takes in tickets from participants, accumulates most of it in an account for the payer, and puts a fraction in a true lottery. Then the ticket-buyer can “win” a small amount according to some rule. The rule  may be hidden from them, as in the original proposal, or could be partially under their control.

Lots of legal problems with this, to say the least. The middleman is acting like a bank, with all the issues that brings. The record-keeping and security could be a problem. And so forth. This is more of a problem in some countries than others.

By the way, this is similar to what “Christmas club accounts” in banks did in the 1950s, apparently. Customers would put $5 into the account each week, and get it all back in December.