I suppose that's true from a technical perspective, if the group was making any return. But the article says that game officials understood what the group was doing and facilitated it because it 'increased revenues and made the lottery even more successful'. So they weren't making money on those specific tickets, but still supposedly knew what was going on and allowed it to continue because they were getting what they wanted out of the situation, so my main point still stands, even with regards to the game officials.