I’m strongly in favor of the lottery continuing because it’s the fastest way for a time traveller to make the most money quickly, while being the least likely to be influenced by the butterfly effect.
The time traveller can, for example, buy their Powerball ticket in Washington state just before the cutoff at 9:59 PM, leaving only an hour for any ripples in causality to reach Florida in time for the drawing at 10:59 PM. The light cones still intersect so there is still some risk there from radiation and quantum effects, but it’s actually far enough that the sound cones do not intersect, significantly limiting the chance the numbers drawn will be altered by the time traveller’s influence on the timeline.
Other techniques such as betting on sports matches and playing the stock market have a longer turnaround time and many more factors that could be influenced by an alteration of the timeline. Plus the payoff is lower. Casino gambling is too close range and easily influenced by changes in the timeline. Bringing future items to the past to fence them could be profitable but stands to seriously alter history, likewise with depositing money in an investment account 100 years ago.
So what I’m saying is - my device is nearly finished and this is my best chance at raising the money to fund a larger one. Don’t screw this up for me!
