No Whammies! Like, Ever.
Before there was AI, there were game shows who cut corners on making their games and people with a lot of time on their hands who figured out how to beat the system. This is one of those stories.
Trailer for "The Luckiest Man in America"
When I watched this trailer, I figured a story as strange and compelling as this, if actually was based on a true story, has already been discovered by the Internet and dissected. Which is correct. And it is a fantastic story at that ((plus Bill Murray was attached to an earlier version of the project).
Here is the wikipedia entry with the meat of the story here:
In November 1983, Larson first saw Press Your Luck and its record-breaking cash prizes. Fascinated, he bought a videocassette recorder (VCR), spent weeks analyzing the Big Board, and came to two conclusions. Firstly, the lights actually moved in five different predetermined patterns and not randomly as advertised. Secondly, Larson never once saw a Whammy in squares four and eight;[8] instead, they "always contained a combination of cash and an extra spin."[2] With these facts, Larson spent the next few months honing his skill at the game, using the VCR pause button to practice his timing.[8]
I am a child of the 80's and love this show so much. And in an age now where AI and AIG and everything else is poised to takeover and overrun human intelligence, this story really strikes a chord.
Maybe what is best about this story is that I discovered this amazing site:
https://www.damninteresting.com/
Which is what the Internet is all about.