I'm sure you guys have heard of the infamous 666 lottery fix here in PA. I remember my uncle said he got a call from his guy,and he told my dad that Tony Grosso (the main numbers guy in Western PA at the time) said not to pay off on any 666 bets. Had Nick Perry and his crew not been so stupid and greedy,they could have picked up about a million dollars on legal state Lottery bets,but they got nuts and tried to play both legally and with the street books.If you don't know the 666 story,check it out. The method they used to pull it off was ingenious,but they wound up getting caught.

On the subject of better odds paid by the street bookies,it's generally true,however,some numbers that receive heavy play (like trips,especially 7's) are called "cut" numbers. We used to pay 400 to 1 on cut numbers,but the upside for the player is that when the State shuts off sales of numbers like 777 three hours before the drawing,the bookies will still take your action until about 15 minutes before.