By Raúl Rodríguez Cota
10 Oct 2024, 16:45 PM EDT
The odds of winning the lottery are generally very low, so much so that a person is more likely to be struck by lightning than to choose the lucky ticket.
However, a Romanian economist, Stefan Mandel, found a way to defy these statistics by winning 14 jackpots around the world, thanks to a unique strategy and collaboration with a group of investors.
In an interview posted on YouTube, Mandel shared his approach: “Theoretically, anyone can buy all possible combinations. Any high school student can calculate those combinations.”
“No one has developed a logistical system to present such a number of lottery tickets. We were the only winners and that was it,” he added.
Mandel’s focus was on a specific lottery in Virginia, where the rules allowed six numbers between one and 44 to be selected, resulting in 7,059,052 possible combinations.
This gave him a considerable advantage, as the number of combinations was manageable.
In addition, Virginia allowed the purchase and printing of tickets from home, which simplified the process: they only needed 30 computers.
In February 1992, his union participated in a lottery offering a $27 million jackpot.
Having covered all the combinations, they not only won the jackpot, but also got $900,000 in additional prizes for the second, third and fourth place tickets.
Mandel’s story caught the attention of up to 14 international agencies, including the CIA and the FBI, but it was proven that there was no wrongdoing.
Currently, he is said to live in a beach house on a remote island off the coast of Australia, enjoying his fortune.
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