Is there really a lottery formula? He won the lottery jackpot 14 times in his life, and the lottery rules of many countries have changed because of him

Lottery had already appeared in ancient Rome 2,000 years ago. my country also had similar forms of gambling in the Southern Song Dynasty. Nowadays, many people equate lottery with "getting rich overnight". However, although there are many people who buy lottery tickets, there are very few who can "get rich overnight".

"Nine out of ten bets are lost", lottery is still a speculative gambling activity. Basically, few people can win the big prize, and even the small prize is very difficult. No matter what kind of lottery activity, there are people who have done the calculations to calculate the probability of winning. In other words, in people's eyes, buying lottery tickets is very likely to win, but in the eyes of some professionals, wanting to get rich by buying lottery tickets is a fantasy.

Do you know how difficult it is to win a jackpot? Let me give you an example of the double-color ball: 6 out of 33 red balls and 1 out of 16 blue balls. There are 17,720,000 possible winning number combinations, but there is only one jackpot number combination. So the probability of winning is only 1 in 1,720,000.

Of course, there are exceptions to everything. In the 1960s, there was a Jew named Stefan Mandel who won the lottery jackpot 14 times. He also developed his own lottery formula and won every time in the lottery market. Later, many countries had to change their lottery rules for him.

▏“Weekend Mathematician”

Stephen Mandel lived in Romania in the late 1960s. The country was in economic depression and people were living in poverty, with no clothes to wear and no food to eat. His monthly income as an accountant was about 88 US dollars, which was not enough to cover the daily expenses of himself and his family. Faced with two hungry children and a wife who had no food to eat every day, he was in great pain and racked his brains to make more money for his livelihood.

Mandel has loved mathematics since he was young. Whenever he had free time, he would study various mathematical documents of mathematician Fibonacci and devote all his spare time to mathematical research. He jokingly called himself a "weekend mathematician." By chance, he saw a lottery video on TV. His professional habits and mathematical thinking allowed him to quickly figure out the mystery. The temptation of the first prize made him very excited, and a bold plan to make a fortune came to him.

After extensive research on Fibonacci's probability paper, Mandel created a "number selection algorithm" to calculate the first five of the six digits in the Romanian lottery at the time. This method increased the probability of winning the lottery jackpot of nearly 20 million to one in a few thousand. Then he bought all possible combinations of numbers for the remaining digit. He found that the winning amount was greater than the cost of buying all the combination lottery tickets. In order to ensure 100% success, Mandel conducted many experiments and revised the formula. Due to insufficient funds, he persuaded his friends to buy all possible combinations together, and successfully won the grand prize of 19,300 US dollars, which was his salary for several years. Excluding the cost and the rewards given to friends, the money in hand made his life rich immediately.

He told the reporters who came to interview him: "I think correct mathematics can bring wealth. Of course, I will not make my method public, just like Coca-Cola will never make its formula public." Having tasted the sweetness, Mandel decided to continue on this "profitable" path.

▏A new journey in life

At that time, many people in Romania were living in misery, and most Romanians were looking for opportunities to go abroad and start a new life. In Mandel's view, the lottery was his ticket to go abroad. This unexpected wealth did not make Mandel lose his mind, and he still remembered his goal - to leave Romania.

At that time, Romania's immigration policy was not relaxed, and immigration channels were limited, making it almost impossible for people to leave their country. Faced with this situation, Mandel had to use the money to bribe officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to obtain an immigration channel. Mandel's first immigration country was Israel in the Middle East. Perhaps because he heard that the Jews were very wealthy, Mandel first went to an unpopular immigration country. However, the rumors of Israel's wealth did not make his lottery career flourish. He spent some time there awkwardly and finally had to immigrate again. However, he never thought that this ancient country had already laid the groundwork for his life.

For his second migration, Mandel chose Australia, located in the southern hemisphere. In the 80s, Australia had a strong economy and the cost of living was not particularly high. Therefore, it was no surprise that Mandel and his family eventually settled there and obtained citizenship. With his Australian citizenship, Mandel could now conduct business in the Commonwealth countries, of which Australia was a part at the time. In short, his citizenship gave him easy access to both the British and Australian lottery systems. Soon after obtaining his citizenship, Mandel began laying the foundation for his lottery business.

The way to buy and win the lottery in Australia is different. Six numbers are randomly selected within a certain range of numbers. Once they match the order selected by the buyer, the jackpot is won. Mandel used his own formula to calculate all the number combinations and found that if the jackpot is won, there is still a lot of profit after deducting the cost.

| Mandel placed an ad in an Australian newspaper seeking investors

Seeing the huge profits, Mandel immediately took action and formed a "syndicate group". He calculated all the number combinations, used the funds raised to buy all the single lottery tickets with each possible number combination, purchased computers to print out all the possible number combinations, and then sent them to retailers to wait for the prize drawing and reap the profits.

Mandel's team continued to expand, he had a large number of people buying lottery tickets for him in convenience stores across the country, and his operation was so organized that he even stored the ticket receipts religiously.

Once the winning ticket is confirmed to be in Mandel's collection, his team takes the receipt and submits it to claim the prize. Once he and his company receive the prize, he sends part of it to his investors and the other part to his army of ticket buyers.

After getting the money, Mandel further improved his calculation method, increased the accuracy of predictions, and summarized a set of formulas. In the days that followed, Mandel relied on his own formula to win the first prize in Australia many times. At the same time, his company began to go international and expanded its business to the UK. According to incomplete statistics, by 1987, Mandel's company had won 12 first prizes in Australia and the UK, with a profit of up to 1.2 million US dollars, and he also earned nearly 100,000 US dollars in commissions.

Mandel's lottery business grew bigger and bigger, and finally attracted the attention of the police. Every time the government issued a new rule or law, they hoped to stop Mandel's lottery business. At first, the Australian government issued a law that it was illegal for one person to buy all the lottery tickets. Mandel found five partners and bought lottery tickets with them, which circumvented the constraints of the law.

Subsequently, Australia enacted another law that made it illegal for a group of individuals to buy all the tickets in a lottery draw. The numerous legal restrictions made it difficult for Mandel's lottery business to continue, and he finally gave up. Mandel was also banned from buying lottery tickets in Australia. Since this road was blocked, he looked for another way. Mandel decided to find another country where he could legally operate a lottery business. This time, he set his sights on the United States across the Atlantic.

▏Creating the American myth

Mandel saw that there was no profit to be made, so he had to find another way out. But by then he was already notorious, and lottery departments in various countries had already modified and improved the rules to avoid being targeted by him. However, there was one exception, which was Virginia in the United States. Moreover, the number range of Virginia lottery is 1-44, which is 10 numbers less than 1-55 in other regions, which means that the number of possible combinations is reduced and the probability of winning is greatly increased.

After carefully studying Virginia's laws and lottery rules, Mandel found that the local lottery rules had not been revised in a timely manner, so he began to use his old tricks again, frantically calculating possible winning numbers and buying lottery tickets. According to incomplete statistics, in the three months from the end of 1991 to the beginning of 1992, Mandel and his team printed a total of 7 million lottery tickets, covering all the possible winning numbers. As soon as the lottery was drawn, Mandel would count the money until his hands cramped.

February 15, 1992 was the day of the lottery draw. That night, Mandel and his team were waiting in front of the TV early. As the lottery machine highlighted the last winning number, Mandel won the $27 million first prize without any suspense. At the same time, the lottery department found that the first prize winner actually won 6 second prizes, 132 third prizes and countless small prizes at the same time, with a total prize of $30 million, or about 200 million yuan.

Such unusual behavior directly attracted the attention of the CIA. After four years of investigation, the CIA almost turned Mandel upside down, but they found that Mandel did not violate any laws, so they had no choice but to drop the matter.

In the end, the $27,036,142 jackpot (and other smaller prizes), minus taxes, was paid out in 20 installments, totaling $1.03 million per year.

▏The good times are over, and the good times are hard to come back

Media from all over the world rushed to interview Mandel, and this sensational news made the front page of international media. Such a large-scale, organized activity attracted the attention of the US CIA and FBI, and they joined 14 other international organizations to launch a four-year investigation. After a long legal appeal, Mandel and his team got rid of all the charges. The United States and Australia amended the law specifically to prevent Mandel from repeating his old tricks, prohibiting others from similar lottery purchases, and maintaining the normal operation of the lottery.

Mandel became the only person who had won the grand prize by purchasing all the combinations so far. This also meant that he could no longer make money in the same way, and his partners could not get the agreed returns, and they could not make ends meet. After paying himself 1.7 million in consulting fees, Mandel sold the 20-year installment bonus. This sensational event came to an end.

Mandel didn't want to give up this good way to make money easily, so he set his sights on the UK. However, along with the development of the UK lottery, computer technology also began to develop. The development of computers made the lottery winning combinations more and more complicated, and finally exceeded Mandel's ability. His journey in the UK lottery ended in failure.

If Mandel had given up at this point and spent the rest of his life with his previous winnings, his life would have been extremely smooth. But no matter how legal the lottery is, buying lottery tickets is still gambling, and Mandel's gambler mentality made him sink deeper and deeper, and he had no way to stop rationally.

Mandel's last lottery trip was to his first immigrant country, Israel. After repeated failures in the UK, Mandel moved back to Israel.

He copied his previous operating system, invested all his assets in it, and also invested investors' investment funds, hoping to make a comeback. But this time, the miracle did not happen. Mandel lost all his money and was helpless in facing the fraud lawsuit from investors. Mandel eventually spent 20 months in an Israeli prison. These 20 months made Mandel finally see the reality that his ability in the lottery business was limited, and his luck was even more limited.

Mandel is the lottery god who shocked Europe, Australia and America. His story is full of legends, but not many gamblers in the world can win a lot of money. He was eventually imprisoned. After 20 months in prison, he finally wiped out the spirited state of this mathematical genius. After he was released from prison, he moved to Vanuatu to live a quiet life.

Life often gives people many tests. When a very tempting fortune is placed in front of you, will you accept it? Forget that being down-to-earth is the right thing to do, and forget that there must be a price behind the windfall.

(Pictures from the Internet)