It is considered more likely to be struck by lightning than to win the lottery. Yet a mathematician refused to believe that the gambling game is truly random and developed a technique that allowed him to win 14 times.
The title image is a symbolic image via Pexels.
Who is the lottery winner? Stefan Mandel, a mathematician and economist, earned millions from lottery wins. He did not rely on luck but developed a method to guarantee himself jackpots (via JV Tech).
Others have also made a lot of money in unusual ways:
Mathematician Escapes Communism with Lottery
How did he proceed? As a young man in Romania in the 1960s, Mandel lacked money and was looking for a way to quickly “make serious money” (via The Hustle). Instead of turning to crime like many others in his situation, he found another way out: the lottery.
Although Mandel claimed to have not very much education, he had a knack for numbers and spent his free time studying mathematical theories. He developed a model he named “Combinatorial Condensation.”
Mandel speculated that the probability of winning a prize increases if you simply buy more tickets. In addition, he developed an algorithm that he claimed would help him select the right numbers.
The mathematician teamed up with 4 friends, and each bought 228 lottery tickets. They actually managed to hit the jackpot of over 72,000 Romanian Leu, equivalent to about 2,000 US dollars at the time but would be around 16,800 US dollars or 20,000 euros today.
With his share, Mandel was able to free his family from the then-communist regime and start a new life in Australia. There, he remained loyal to gambling.
The Australian “Lottery Syndicate”
What happened next for him? Mandel realized that the jackpot in some lotteries was significantly higher than the cost of buying tickets with every possible combination. He developed a simple but logistically complex system:
- Calculate the number of possible combinations. If 6 numbers are drawn from 1 to 40, there are 3,838,380 possible combinations.
- Find lotteries where the jackpot is at least three times the cost of tickets with all combinations.
- Find investors to have enough money to pay for so many tickets.
- Print millions of lottery tickets – this was allowed back then.
- Take the tickets to an authorized dealer and pay for them.
- Pay taxes and investors, take the winnings.
Over the years, Mandel built a real lottery syndicate, with which he hit the jackpot 12 more times during his time in Australia and received countless smaller prizes.
The mathematician’s approach was completely legal at this point, but it attracted the attention of the Australian authorities. Eventually, the rules were changed to prohibit mass purchases of lottery tickets as well as computer-generated tickets.
Mandel’s Biggest Coup: The Virginia Lottery 1992
However, Mandel was not deterred by the new regulations and shifted his operation to the USA, where he targeted 6 lotteries. In particular, the Virginia Lottery proved to be a lucrative target, as only numbers between 1 and 44 were drawn there, which reduced the number of possible combinations compared to other lotteries.
Mandel founded an agency and set up a trust to acquire the necessary lottery tickets. For printing the tickets, he set up 30 computers and 12 laser printers in a warehouse in Melbourne and hired 16 employees. It reportedly took three months to print all the tickets, which were then sent to the USA.
Transporting the lottery tickets to their destination turned out to be a logistical nightmare, and several hundred thousand tickets ended up being lost. Nevertheless, Mandel managed to hit the jackpot of 27 million US dollars in 1992, as well as win other prizes worth 900,000 dollars.
Although Mandel’s actions were legal in the USA at this point, he became embroiled in a multi-year legal battle, but ultimately was acquitted of any wrongdoing.
The mathematician was able to pay out his investors – and give himself a hefty “consultant salary” – but they received less money than expected, and the mood turned against him. In 1995, Mandel finally declared bankruptcy.
After another 10 years with various investment ventures, Mandel retired to the tropical island of Vanuatu off the coast of Australia, where he enjoys a quiet retirement.
A teenager from the USA also showed great entrepreneurial spirit at a young age and found a method to get rich quickly. But he lost it all. 13-Year-Old Earns €28,000 in 8 Minutes with His Own Cryptocurrency, Cashes Out Immediately, Could Be a Millionaire Now
