The Man Who Won The Lottery 14 Times Shares His Secrets

Beginning in Romania

Stefan Mandel was born and raised during the communist era in Romania. At that time the vast majority of people in the country were poor, and the only way to make money was to think outside the box (and sometimes even work outside of the law). However, just like in many other places, there was a lottery in Romania which would enable the average person to get rich quickly. It was then that Mandel had an idea.

Trying for the first time

Working as an economist for a Romanian mining consortium, Mandel was wondering to himself if it would be possible to essentially legally make his odds of winning the lottery greater. In a country where if you don’t know somebody you can’t get anything, the lotto was a great equalizer. Putting his mind to solving how to get at least a second-round prize, he discovered a mathematical formula which would enable him to up his chances of winning to nearly one hundred percent.

The big one

This was Mandel’s first time trying out his technique, and he was nervous. Four years after first thinking about the problem, he had put up a whole lot of his own money in the hopes of winning just a second-round prize. Instead of trying to get all six numbers correct, he was trying to get just the first five numbers right, something which was much more feasible. But to his great surprise, he won the jackpot.

Moving

It was close to impossible to leave Romania during the communist era. In fact, when the Jews of Romania left to go to Israel, the Jewish state had to literally pay a ransom for each one who wanted to emigrate. However, now that Stefan Mandel (who was Jewish) had money, he was able to bribe the foreign ministry officials to give him an exit visa to leave the country and emigrate to Israel, a first world, free, western country.

Rinse and repeat

Upon coming to Israel as a new immigrant, Stefan Mandel tried to replicate his success with the Romanian lottery. So, Mandel waited for several years, watching and getting to understand the lottery system there before he tried to replicate his success. He determined a winning algorithm and did the same thing as he did in Romania, simply buying up stacks and stacks of lotto cards. And as “luck” would have it, he won!