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How Stefan Mandel managed to win the lottery 14 times
Winning the lottery is something that most could only dream of. For this man though, it became a reality 14 times thanks to his own basic but impressive method that guaranteed him to win.
Economist Stefan Mandel created a formula that worked out a sure-fire way of winning the lottery, earning himself millions across the world over the years after his first win in the late 1960s. Mandel claimed the maths was so easy a high-school student could do it.�
After Mandels intense spree of global lottery wins, that saw him set up companies and hire warehouses in the process, both Australia and the US made his formula for success illegal in every state.
Mandels first life-changing lottery win based on maths
Stefan Mandels first-ever lottery win wasnt one of pure luck. It was calculated and ultimately essential. He used the winning money to flee communist Romania. He told Planet Money, he needed to get some serious money, quickly.
Not many would bet on the lottery to get themselves guaranteed money, but Mandel was seriously good with numbers. Cue Mandels first formula for a lottery win (note: this wasnt his most impressive one.)
If a player picked 6 numbers in a 49-ball lottery, his odds of winning were 1 in 13,983,816. If he selected 15 numbers (which required purchasing 5,005 games one for each possible combination), his odds of winning increased to 1 in 2,794. Mandel claimed that his algorithm could reduce these 5,005 combinations to just 569, reported The Hustle.
If the 6 winning numbers fell among his 15 picks, hed be guaranteed to win at least a 2nd prize and hundreds of smaller prizes and hed have a 1 in 10 chance of winning the grand prize.
Mandel and four of his friends reportedly purchased 228 tickets each and managed to win the first prize of around $16k in modern US money. He was able to use that money to flee from Romania to Australia.
Mandel won the lottery 12 times in Australia
While living in Australia, Mandel managed to figure out an in-depth formula that would actually guarantee a win each time. Its a simple plan, but one that requires a lot of money to invest, a lot of time, and a lot of balls.
As per Business Insider, The first step was for Mandel to calculate the total different possible combinations. Then he sought out lotteries in which the jackpot amount was three times or more the number of possible combinations, to ensure he would win more than he paid.
He would seek investors to help fund the costs of buying all the possible combinations, sometimes making over 2,000 investors. Back in those days, lotteries allowed customers to print out the tickets at home and be authorized in a store. When one of those tickets inevitably won, he would cash the ticket.
Together with his investors, Mandel won 12 different lotteries.
The Virginia lottery earned him millions and a federal investigation
It wasnt long however until his flurry of wins sparked Australian officials to change the countrys lottery laws, banning one person from buying every combination of numbers.
Mandel moved his mission to US lotteries instead, with one that made him internationally recognized. In 1992, he used his technique on the Virginia lottery with a $27,036,142 jackpot.
The economist even set up an agency with an insurance company, founding a trust called the International Lotto Fund, to pool 2,560 investors. According to The Hustle, Mandel took to a Melbourne warehouse and used 30 computers to print 7,059,052 tickets over three months.
Mandel won the jackpot for the Virginia lottery, along with multiple runner-up prize amounts. He became subject to an investigation from the CIA, FBI, IRS, and National Crime Authority but was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing and took home millions after paying out his overhead fees and investors.
Now, all states in the US have enacted laws against using Mandels strategy.
