The Economist Found a Way to Hit the Jackpot and Won 14 Times (5 Photos)
The odds of winning the lottery are one in a million. But not just for Stephen Mandel. In the 1980s and 1990s, the economist managed to win in lottery fourteen times. All his actions were absolutely legal, he I just used simple calculations. 
Mandel was born in Romania and got his first two wins at home. The man dreamed of moving with his family to another country, he a lot of money was required. To do this, he developed an ingenious system. First, Stefan studied various lotteries to understand how much combinations in circulation. For example, if a particular lottery draws numbers from 1 to 40, and a combination of six numbers is required to win, then there are 3,838,380 possible outcomes. It turned out that in some lotteries, the jackpot is several times the cost of buying all possible lottery combinations. For example, if the jackpot was 10 million dollars, and tickets cost $ 1, someone could buy everything tickets and guarantee yourself a win and a solid profit. Remained only to raise capital to buy tickets. 
So Stefan began to create lottery syndicates in which investors invested in lottery tickets, and the winnings were divided between yourself. The first win on this system brought him $3,700. These enough money to move the family from Romania to Australia.
Already in a new place, the economist hit 12 jackpots, as well as won many small prizes. Mandel created ever larger syndicates, while remaining within the rules of the game. While it was allowed to print tickets at home, which allowed the man to purchase millions of tickets and automate the process of filling various combinations. 
After big wins in the UK and Australia, there were rules were introduced prohibiting the mass purchase of tickets and the use of computer generated tickets. Stefan began to study American lotteries. The Virginia Lottery was the ideal option: since it used numbers from 1 to 44, the number of combinations was much less than in other states. Mandel founded a corporation Pacific Financial Resources and established the International Lotto Fund Trust. Thousands of investors poured in millions and Stefan hired 16 employees who within three months printed 7 million tickets needed for guaranteed win. 
In February 1992, winnings in Virginia reached 27 million dollars, and Mandel decided it was time to apply his strategy. Using pre-printed pay vouchers, Stefan's team went to the stores that had previously concluded an agreement with him. IN one of the stores refused to sell tickets, resulting in only 90% of the winning combinations are acquired. But that didn't stop syndicate to win the grand prize, as well as $900,000. Mandel attracted the attention of the CIA and the FBI, litigation began, but the economist managed to get out of the water dry. Now in the US, new rules have been introduced, to prevent a repeat of the scam.
In 1995, Stefan filed for bankruptcy and even spent 20 months in an Israeli prison for fraud. Today he leads a quiet life on the island of Vanuatu, where several members of his former syndicate. 
In 2012, Stefan Mandel gave a rare interview to a Romanian newspaper Bursa, in which he said: "I am a person who takes risks, but calculates the odds. Cutting a beard is also a lottery. Always is the likelihood that I will cut myself, infect the bloodstream and die, but I I do it anyway. The odds are in my favor."
