Destined to become a modern classic, "Its Wildness Lies in Wait" is the definitive guide to not getting played by the lottery. Record-setting lottery jackpots occur regularly around the world, but great riches seem to lie just outside our grasp. So we look for an edge: by using lotto websites, books, software, systems (or wheels), and even the supernatural. But is there an edge? Or is there really no way to increase our chances of winning the lottery, short of buying more tickets? It's time to finally set the record straight by dispelling the many myths surrounding the lottery. In a landmark new book, Mark Jones Lorenzo picks apart dozens of loud, flashy, and false lottery myths. And he argues persuasively that lotto systems, software, and other popular techniques and methods supposedly designed to provide players an advantage are mostly deceptive pseudoscientific nonsense, not satisfying the criteria of mathematical soundness, statistical rigor, or empirical efficacy. Lorenzo, a longtime instructor of mathematics, offers up a sophisticated, carefully reasoned, and powerful meditation on the lottery, exhaustively exploring the many strains of thought in lottery literature from a mathematical, statistical, psychological, philosophical, epistemological, and historical perspective, as well as decoding the computer algorithms--such as full- and abbreviated-wheel creation, historical data analysis, and quick picks' generation, among others--powering lotto software. What's more, the cognitive biases that may help explain why we find ourselves mentally stuck--not just when thinking about the lottery, but with mathematical probabilities in general--are detailed. From the well-known gambler's fallacy to the newly minted distribution-confusion fallacy, understanding how the illusions of control and the limits of prediction muddy the waters is paramount to lotto myth-busting. Brimming with pop culture references, fresh anecdotes, and real-world examples, "Its Wildness Lies in Wait" has much to offer the lottery novice and expert alike. You'll never play the lotto in quite the same way again after you learn how to spot the lottery lies which lie in wait.