How a man won 300 thousand dollars: The line between intelligence and deception (4 photos)

40 years ago, in 1984, an ordinary man named Michael Larson went on a game show and won a record amount of money. Right during the recording of the show, the producers panicked and wanted to stop him - literally every time the player pressed the button and shouted "Stop", he won huge cash prizes. He's cheating - the bosses thought. They double-checked everything and realized that Michael Larson was not cheating them. He was just smarter than them.





Michael Larson was born and lived in Ohio. In 1984, he was 35 years old. He fixed air conditioners, sold ice cream from a van, and engaged in petty fraud - he deceived banks, receiving payments for new clients; he deceived social services, receiving unemployment benefits. And when in 1983 Michael Larson saw a new game show "Press Your Luck" on CBS, he was fascinated by it.

The man bought a VCR and recorded the shows as they aired. He watched and re-watched the flashing and stopping buttons hundreds, thousands of times. And soon he discovered the entire algorithm of this game. There were only five scenarios for changing signals, and double prizes were hidden on certain buttons.



Michael Larson spent months practicing his math and button-pressing skills. Then he boarded a plane from Ohio to California. He got himself hired to appear on the show. And on that fateful day, he surprised everyone by winning, winning, winning. He won, winning, winning. His final score was $110,000 (equivalent to $330,000 today). No one had ever won more than $15,000 before.

CBS management was, of course, shocked. They rushed to double-check the tapes, the equipment, and everything connected with Michael Larson. But they found no fraud. This man simply outsmarted them, having figured out the primitive algorithm of the game.

CBS channel paid Michael Larson all his winnings. The recording of the show was released on TV and immediately added to the existing five scenarios of changing signals another 27.





And what did Michael Larson do with his winnings?

He paid about $30,000 in taxes and invested part of the money in investment real estate. He soon abandoned the investment and decided to get rich in another way - he exchanged $100,000 for one-dollar bills, hoping to find rare ones with identical serial numbers. But the idea turned out to be unsuccessful - one day, half of this amount, $50,000, was simply stolen from his house. This robbery remained unsolved...

Then Michael Larson was engaged in network marketing, and in 1995, the FBI began hunting him, accusing him of embezzling $1.8 million received from 14 thousand defrauded investors.

He died in 1999 at the age of 49 from throat cancer. Michael Larson's record cash win was broken only in 2006.



An interesting story, worthy of a film adaptation, right?

The creators of the film "The Luckiest Man in America" ​​have already thought about this. It will be released in 2024. The main role is played by Paul Walter Hauser ("I, Tonya", "The Case of Richard Jewell"), and the company is Walton Goggins and Johnny Knoxville.