1.

Ethical dilemma in this case

An ethical dilemma is a difficulty in choosing between two possibilities that, from an ethical
standpoint are not entirely acceptable. The majority of the ethical and moral issues we confront
in life have quite simple solutions, despite the fact that we encounter many of them. On the other
hand, ethical dilemma is exceedingly challenging problems that are difficult to resolve.

Therefore, everyone must have the ability to choose the best course of action in such
circumstances. Every person may run across an ethical dilemma in practically any situation,
including social, professional, and personal ones. The primary problem with an ethical dilemma
is that it does not provide a clear answer that would be in line with ethical standards. Offering a
client a subpar product for your own gain, taking credit for others' work, and other ethical
dilemmas are a few instances.

In this particular case, both Black and Hoover invested 200$ collectively in the Beginners
Luck Ticket, they invested in the beginners luck ticket because from the information online both
Black and Hoover anticipated that the return of Beginner’s Luck tickets made for a higher than
normal probability that buying tickets would on average be profitable. However, to their surprise
on the investment of 200$, they lost 120$ and when the website was showing that more than
95% of the beginners luck prizes have been claimed within a month and the statistical probability
that the same could occur is very low.

Due to this low statistical probability Black and Hoover anticipated a fraud by the Virginia
lottery in showing the wrong percentage of prizes claimed, the claiming percentage has to be
much lower. They discussed the same with the lawyer and gave proper evidence for the same.
The lawyer was of the view that if Black and Hoover file this case, they should be ready for the
real fight because the state earn a large chunk of their revenue from the lottery tickets and the
state would take it seriously. Listening to the same, Black was resistant in going ahead with the
case.

This resistance of Black to file a case against the government because it might affect his
personal life is a part of the ethical dilemma. Black is very sure here that the government is
fraudulent here and was ready to file a case against the government until he got to know that the
case would go very long and it could also impact his personal life without no real gain from the
case. This resistance from Black is Ethical dilemma wherein he is well aware of the fact that he
is doing a right thing by filing a case but is scared of filing it because of the consequences.

2. Evidences that Black and Hoover had with them

Black and Hoover after a lot of research from past instances came to a conclusion that buying the
Beginners luck ticket would give them good profits. In pursuance of the same, they invested
200$ in and were expecting good profits once the results are uploaded on the site. However the
things came very different when the result was announced, they lost 120 dollars on their
investment of 200 dollars.

In the weeks that followed, Hoover was continuously checking the Lottery website to see if any
other prizes had been claimed. While he was monitoring the figures, he made the observation
that the high-dollar rewards appeared to be claimed at a speed that was far slower than what
statistical principles would imply. It didn’t make any sense statistically that there were still so
many high-dollar rewards available, but there were.

For illustration purposes, 96.5% of the prizes of $5 had been claimed, however just 42.1% of the
prizes worth $100 had been claimed over the same time period. Both Black and Hoover had a
strong feeling that something was wrong about the situation because the mathematical
probability that this could have happened by chance was extremely low. They considered a
number of possible causes, ranging from the likelihood of a straightforward data error to the
possibility of the deliberate publication of misleading data in order to encourage increased
purchasing from clients.

There is no clear evidence that there has been a fraud by the Virginia Lottery but they admitted
that simple incompetence might explain what they were seeing, and both of them were resolute
in arguing that either by mistake or intent the Lottery was posting incorrect information online.
Not only does the previous statistical data shows that there is some sort of fraud even the
information received from the Freedom of Information Act suggests that the Virginia lottery has
been lying to the consumers from very long by showing the wrong statistical data. As per the
report, the government earns a profit of 84 million dollars by this fraudulent activity and public
should be made aware about this fraud.
 3. Moral responsibilities of Hoover

a. Who are the relevant stakeholders and what are their interests?

Scott Hoover is an Associate Professor of Finance in Washington and Lee University.

Hoover was aware of the fact that filing a law suit of this magnitude against the government
would bring many problems for both of them, but he is still compelled to file a law suit. It is so
because W&L was a university that prided itself on honor and integrity and students were held to
a high moral standard. The W&L environment held students to the highest ethical standards; and
because of that Hoover felt pressure to go public with the allegations. He thought it would be
somewhat hypocritical to hold himself to a lower standard than his own students.

Due to the self-imposed moral obligations Hoover felt that the case against the government
should be filed because more than 84 million dollars of the common people is at stake. These
consumers whose 84 million dollars has been fraudulently stolen by the government were the
relevant stakeholders. Hoover find it to be his moral obligation to fight for these people, although
he would not be able to recover the money due to the legal issues involved but due to popularity
of Virginia lottery, the case would come in the knowledge of relevant stakeholders.

b. The morally relevant considerations for a. utilitarian; b. deontological; c. virtue ethics

 Utilitarian-: Utilitarianism is generally held to be the view that the morally right action is the
action that produces the most good; it focuses on the right by focusing on the consequences.
In this particular case if Hoover and Black will file the case, although they will not be able to
recover money of the people concerned. But filing the case would let those people know
about the possible fraud and it would do the larger good.
 Deontological-: As per the deontological ethics some acts are morally obligatory regardless
of their consequences on human welfare. In this particular case it is a moral obligation on
both Black and Hoover to file a case irrespective of any damage to the human welfare. The
money that is earned from the lottery is spent for the education and therefore this case might
harm to the funding, but it is morally important to let people know about the possible fraud.
 Virtue Ethics-: The theory of virtue ethics contemplate that a person should act as a
virtuous/sane person would act in the normal circumstance. In the present case the possible
act by the sane person would have been to file a case against the government to uncover the
 possible fraud. Therefore the case against the government should be filed taking the virtue
ethics into mind.

4. Personal values that compelled Hoover to take the action

Initially both Black and Hoover were compelled to take the case against the Virgin lottery.
However after they consulted the lawyer, one thing was clear that filing a suit of this magnitude
against the government could bring a lot of personal problems for both of them. After a careful
consideration Black advised to not continue with the case, however Hoover was of different
view, he was ready to file a case irrespective of any consequences that may come his way and
even compelled Black to go on with the filing.

The reason of going ahead with the case even after knowing the possible consequences were
the moral standards that are followed by Hoover. Hoover is an associate professor in W&L
University; it is a university that took pride in its dignity and integrity, and where students were
held to a high degree of morality. W&L had a stringent honour code that required for the
expulsion of any student who lied, stole, or used cheating methods on final exams. Faculty
members were also urged to accept students at their word in all situations.

Since W&L expected the highest ethical standards from its students, Hoover felt under
pressure to make the accusations public. He believed that to hold himself to a lower level than
his own students would be somewhat hypocritical. Hoover asked his bosses at W&L for advice.
The department director at Hoover was upbeat and emphasized how crucial it was to pressure
Lottery officials to change. Hoover’s dean also stated that moving forward was precisely the
kind of thing that W&L faculty members should be doing.

Being a member of the W&L community Hoover thought it to be his responsibility to abide
by the moral standards of the college. He is well aware of the fact that this case could disturb his
personal life for years to come and people would also misunderstand him in many aspects. But
he was clear with one thing that there is a very high chance of the occurrence of fraud and it must
come in front of the public eye irrespective of any personal damage that might occur to him.
 5. What are Hoover’s objectives? What does he want to accomplish? Do you believe
Hoover an opportunist, idealist or Pragmatist?

Before Hoover invested in the Virginia lottery system, he thought that Virginia lottery has a
very fair system of distributing the lottery awards and since the results are announced on the
website it is easy to calculate the chances of winning the award. Applying his statistical mind he
invested 200$ in the lottery and was expecting a greater return but rather faced a loss of 120$.
Seeing the past trends the results were very shocking and this is when he delved deep into the
functioning of the Virginia Lottery system and contended of a possible fraud of a very huge
amount.

Herein the main objective of Hoover is to bring the Virginia Lottery into contention and
bring in front of the public eye the possible frauds that might have been caused by it in the past
years. Further he also wanted the money he invested back. Other than these objective, the most
important thing that he want