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The two differences between financial speculation and gambling are your odds and whether you wear a fancy tie.

The odds are the more important one. If you can make statistical methods that show the risk of loss, you can then assign a premium to that risk and put it on the market. Whether it will get enough liquidity to get past the smalltime remains to be seen.

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At least in NY state, the exact odds and payouts are published. So you can certainly assign a premium to the risk involved, and you can do so exactly.

But since everyone knows the odds, the lotto market is perfectly efficient and no one can win in the long run -- this is what makes it gambling.

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