For most of us, winning the lottery is a mere pipe dream. After all, you are four times more likely to be struck by lightning.
But one man has won it a whopping 14 times. And it’s all down to a mathematical equation.
Stefan Mandel is a Romanian-Australian mathematician.
He beat the 1 in 300 million odds not just once but 14 times
When it came to beating the one in 300 million odds of winning the jackpot, he didn’t leave it up to luck and picking numbers at random like the rest of us.
Instead, he used his mathematical prowess to work out the combination of numbers that would give him the best chance of raking in the big bucks.
Enlisting the help of a group of investors and a syndicate called the International Lotto Fund, Mandel then targeted lotteries in the US, Romania and Australia.
The money-making method went on to earn him a massive $27 million jackpot prize, as well as $900,000 in additional prizes for second, third and fourth place wins back in 1992.
But, while the scheme wasn’t technically illegal, it brought about a whole load of suspicions, and Mandel and the ILF were investigated by the CIA and FBI.
They were both ultimately cleared of any wrongdoing.
So, how exactly did he do it? Well, that’s all down to what Mandel says is ‘simple math.’
He called his number-picking algorithm ‘combinatorial condensation.’
This rested on the price of buying enough lottery tickets to play every possible combination being less than the jackpot prize.
Eventually, the US established laws banning punters from buying tickets in bulk, as well as the use of computer-generated tickets so nobody could replicate this method.
Following his big win, Mandel entered a lengthy legal battle and while he was acquitted of the crimes he’d been accused of, the ordeal caused him a bunch of financial trouble.
The big-hitter would later declare bankruptcy in 1995 and go on to spend the next decade running various investment schemes.
Nowadays, Mandel spends his time on the beach on a remote tropical island off the coast of Australia called Vanuatu after having declared himself ‘retired from the lottery’ altogether.
“I’m a man who takes risks, but in a calculated way,” he told Romanian newspaper Bursa back in 2012.
“Trimming my beard is a lottery: There is always the possibility that I’ll cut myself, get an infection in my blood and die — but I do it anyway. The chances are in my favor.”
