The lottery is a strange invention. It is similar to gambling, but yet, it is not quite the same. Whereas many forms of gambling require some sort of skill, the lottery specifically requires you to pick numbers seemingly at random and hope that those same numbers are called out.
It is one of the riskiest “investments” that there is, and you are much more likely to win at roulette or get struck by lightning than win the lottery. And yet, lotteries all over the United States will generate billions upon billions of dollars in revenue for whatever state they are in.
Lotteries all over the world are typically used as a form of voluntary taxation. This may sound crazy, but trust us, it is crazy enough to work. The lottery is used by many places in order to help supplement funds geared towards education, infrastructure projects, or even sometimes just general upkeep of the state. It is a way for states to raise money quickly. And so how do these states convince people to voluntarily donate their hard earned cash above and beyond the taxes that they are already paying? They make sure to have some sort of a prize at the end.
The thing is though that these prizes are nearly impossible to win. But what if there was a way to ensure that you would win every time? How would you do it? And if you could do it, would you?
Well, it turns out that from the 1960s up until the 1990s, one man, Stefan Mandel, was able to win the lottery 14 times. And the thing is, luck had nothing to do with it. Using methods which were legal at the time, he simply out-gamed the lottery.
And this is how he was able to do it.
Not your ordinary guy
Stefan Mandel is not your average man. Originally from Romania, Mandel is a mathematician and investment whizz. He has made millions in investments all around the world, and he has been able to ensure that his clients also make millions too. How does he do it? What is he investing in? And is it still possible for us to join in on his investment pool? Well, the answer is, to say the least, pretty crazy.
Lots of luck?
We all know that there is a one in a million chance of winning the lottery. It is nearly impossible to win! In fact, chances are so low that you are actually a lot more likely to become a movie star than you are to win the lottery. And yet, there are people who are able to win 100 percent of the time every time. But how is that even possible. Must they be super lucky right?
Cornering the lottery
Stefan Mandel has won lotteries all over the world over 14 times. How has he managed to do this? Is he just super lucky? Well, it turns out that Mandel has discovered a foolproof way of guaranteeing that he always wins the lottery. He and his cadre will go out and, using the laws regulating government lotteries around the world, will attempt to corner the lottery in order to win. But what does that mean exactly?
How he does it
Stefan Mandel knows that winning the lottery is, depending on how many numbers there are, a one in a million (or two million or three million) shot. Mandel also knows that the only way to increase your chances of winning is by buying more than one ticket. But he is not talking about buying two or five or even 100 tickets. Mandel would buy as many tickets as he could – literally millions of tickets) in the hope of getting the winning one.
Tons of money
And that is where the investors come in. You see, it is nearly impossible to come up with millions of dollars on your own (and if you already have that much, you probably are not spending it on the lottery anyway). So, Mandel reached out to average people and asked them to invest in this seemingly foolproof plan. So, once a lottery somewhere in the world got high enough, Mandel and his firm would buy up all of the tickets, ensuring their victory.