Money

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 ABC News 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? Newsmax.com 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 The New York Times 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 NBC 5 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 Patch 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. Beginning in Romania CBS News 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 CNBC.com 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 Hollywood Life 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 CNN Money 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 Daily Mail 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! Moving again USA Today This time, with even more money, Stefan Mandel was able to get his family a visa to pick up and move to Australia, which at that time was still cheap to live in but had a very strong economy. Mandel and his family would eventually get Australian citizenship. This would enable him to do business in the British Commonwealth countries, as Australia was a part of the British Commonwealth at that time. This gave him access to the UK lottery system and a lot of money. Hitting Australia Reuters Stefan Mandel knew exactly what to do in order to get his lotto business off the ground. First, he had to get the slips of paper themselves. Then he got a whole bunch of laser printers (which were giant and brand new technology at the time) in order to print off his tickets. Mandel would then go to the heads of the Australian lottery and say that he wanted to buy all of the numbers, which he did. He then sat back, waited, and won, distributing the winnings to his investors. Thinking it through Giant Lottos There are all types of things to consider before making a lotto purchase at this scale. First is when exactly to do it. Sometimes there are lotto amounts where the grand prize is a measly $500,000. Then there are other times when the grand prize is nearly a half a billion dollars. Additionally, after taking into account what would happen if the pot was split and the taxes that would have to be paid, it could take a lot of waiting before the perfect pot comes along. Twelve Giant Lottos Stefan Mandel would corner the Australian lottery twelve times. He had a literal army of people who were filling out and submitting tickets to various convenience stores around Australia all at the same time. The people submitting the tickets would then get the receipts and, in an organized and orderly fashion, put the receipts into storage. Once the winning ticket (which he invariably had) was called, his team would get the receipt and the company would claim the winnings. Changing the laws Giant Lottos As it turns out, none of what Stefan was doing was actually illegal. There was nothing in the lottery rules a which stipulated that one person could not buy every lotto ticket. But little by little Australia started to catch on. First, they made it illegal for one person to buy all the tickets, so Mandel got five partners. Then they said that a group of individuals could not buy up all the tickets, so Mandel created a lotto firm. Eventually, Australia enacted so many laws that it became tough to operate. Credits: worldation.com