This Man Won 14 Lotteries With Basic Math and a Good Dose of Strategy

Written by Fabio Lucas Carvalho

Published on 17/07/2025 at 14:16

Updated on 17/07/2025 at 14:22

Foto: Reprodução

Be the first to react!

A Romanian-Australian Economist Managed To Win 14 Lotteries Over His Lifetime Using Only Basic Mathematics, Planning, And A Million-Dollar Operation.

In the 1990s, a man surprised the world by winning several lotteries using only mathematical logic and organization. The person responsible for this feat was Stefan Mandel, a Romanian-Australian economist who won no less than 14 times.

Not relying on luck, Mandel developed a method that combined basic statistics and large-scale execution. The plan worked first in Romania and later in lotteries in Australia and the United States.

Understanding The Odds

The chance of winning the lottery is extremely low. In the case of EuroMillions, for example, the probability of hitting all the numbers with one ticket is 1 in 139,838,160. Even with two tickets, the odds are still minimal: 2 in 139,838,160.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

Mandel’s Brilliance

The economist noticed that in some lotteries, the value of the jackpot rose to more than three times the total cost of all possible combinations.

This created room for a bold move: to buy all possible tickets and ensure a profit — as long as no one else hit the same numbers.

That’s what he decided to do. First, he convinced investors to finance the idea. Then, he developed algorithms capable of generating and printing millions of tickets, which was allowed by some lotteries at the time. This allowed him to prepare the tickets in advance.

The final step was to wait for the right moment. When the jackpot reached high enough, his team sprang into action and bought the tickets in bulk.

The Virginia Case

The boldest example was in Virginia, USA. The local lottery used only the numbers from 1 to 44, which reduced the possible combinations to 7,059,052. This made it feasible to buy all the options.

When the jackpot reached US$ 15.5 million, Mandel activated the plan. He had already organized the sale of tickets at various stores in advance to avoid confusion. However, some retailers backed out of the agreement, leaving some combinations out.

Even so, after two days of intense work, his team managed to buy 6.4 million of the 7 million possible combinations. And yes, the winning ticket was among them.

Investigation And Final Result

The case attracted attention. Mandel was investigated by the FBI and the CIA, but no illegalities were found. He did not violate any official lottery rules, despite acting outside the “spirit of the game.”

The exact profit he made was never clearly revealed. After paying investors, covering legal expenses, and other costs, it is unknown how much he actually pocketed. But the success was enough to change his life.

In total, Stefan Mandel won 14 different lotteries. The prizes brought in millions of pounds in winnings for him and his partners.

After ending his activities, he retired to a beach house in the tropical islands of Vanuatu.

This story shows that sometimes winning does not depend only on luck — but on mathematics, strategy, and a lot of organization.

0 Comments

most recent

older Most voted

This Man Won 14 Lotteries With Basic Math and a Good Dose of Strategy

A Romanian-Australian Economist Managed To Win 14 Lotteries Over His Lifetime Using Only Basic Mathematics, Planning, And A Million-Dollar Operation.

Understanding The Odds

Mandel’s Brilliance

The Virginia Case

Investigation And Final Result

Engineers want to carve through Africa with a giant canal to bring water from the world’s second-largest river to a dying lake on the edge of the Sahara Desert that has already lost 90% of its water.

A giant brown band visible from space, approximately 8,850 kilometers long, connected Africa to America in the Atlantic Ocean, and satellites revealed that it is neither land nor pollution, but the largest accumulation of seaweed in the world, which broke records in 2025.

Instead of burning or burying old tires, an American city is transforming about 2,000 of them into the street itself, paving its first sections with a quieter and more durable rubber asphalt.

In just one cast, fishermen are surprised to capture 14,096 mullets in Bombinhas and close a historic season with 58,000 fish; scene recorded in the Santa Catarina paradise marks the last day of the 2026 season.

10 giant tortoises are reintroduced and, in just 6 months, trigger changes that lead scientists to investigate a phenomenon absent for 180 years; the numbers recorded on the island impress researchers from around the world.

Greek island offers free housing for volunteers, but there’s a condition: you need to take care of rescued cats.

Motorcyclist sees excavator arriving at the edge of a river in Bosnia, calls neighbors in minutes and turns a hydroelectric project into a resistance lasting more than 10 years with five expired concessions.

A single tank in the lake of a plant yields 90,000 kilos of tilapia every six months, and the company wants to multiply this by 500 to take Mato Grosso do Sul from 11th place to the top in the country.

The brute force of the waves turns into clean energy with almost no waste, as promised by a gyroscopic converter created in Japan that, in simulations, couples with the sea’s sway and reaches the maximum limit of 50% efficiency, leaving old marine generators behind.

A prefabricated wooden house with 70 m², three bedrooms, and a veranda costs the same as a new car in Brazil, around R$ 140,000, or 24,000 euros, and is for sale in Spain.

Four 755-meter cables will no longer cut through the sky of Sugarloaf Mountain: the canceled zipline project promised to transform the landmark into an attraction worth over R$ 100 million and ended before getting off the ground.

Suspended at more than 200m high, this bridge was built to replace a dangerous road and today offers a bungee jump with more than seven seconds of free fall over a gorge in South Africa; Get to know the Bloukrans Bridge.

This Man Won 14 Lotteries With Basic Math and a Good Dose of Strategy

A Romanian-Australian Economist Managed To Win 14 Lotteries Over His Lifetime Using Only Basic Mathematics, Planning, And A Million-Dollar Operation.

Understanding The Odds

Mandel’s Brilliance

The Virginia Case

Investigation And Final Result

Engineers want to carve through Africa with a giant canal to bring water from the world’s second-largest river to a dying lake on the edge of the Sahara Desert that has already lost 90% of its water.

A giant brown band visible from space, approximately 8,850 kilometers long, connected Africa to America in the Atlantic Ocean, and satellites revealed that it is neither land nor pollution, but the largest accumulation of seaweed in the world, which broke records in 2025.

Instead of burning or burying old tires, an American city is transforming about 2,000 of them into the street itself, paving its first sections with a quieter and more durable rubber asphalt.

In just one cast, fishermen are surprised to capture 14,096 mullets in Bombinhas and close a historic season with 58,000 fish; scene recorded in the Santa Catarina paradise marks the last day of the 2026 season.

10 giant tortoises are reintroduced and, in just 6 months, trigger changes that lead scientists to investigate a phenomenon absent for 180 years; the numbers recorded on the island impress researchers from around the world.

Greek island offers free housing for volunteers, but there’s a condition: you need to take care of rescued cats.

Motorcyclist sees excavator arriving at the edge of a river in Bosnia, calls neighbors in minutes and turns a hydroelectric project into a resistance lasting more than 10 years with five expired concessions.

Suspended at more than 200m high, this bridge was built to replace a dangerous road and today offers a bungee jump with more than seven seconds of free fall over a gorge in South Africa; Get to know the Bloukrans Bridge.

Young person announces departure from Havan and scares parents, but reveals promotion to work directly with Luciano Hang, moves the family and turns a supposed farewell into a professional achievement within the Brusque retail group that went viral on social media in Santa Catarina.

Two brothers set up a listening station in a bunker and fueled the legend of the lost cosmonauts, the Cold War mystery about alleged Soviet signals picked up before Gagarin that still intrigues space race enthusiasts today.

A company from the interior of Santa Catarina receives wood from sawmills that would last one or two years and returns it with a guarantee of over 15; the secret of treated wood lies in replacing the sap of eucalyptus and pine with a chemical solution in a process of about 10 days.

A resident of a town with 6,000 inhabitants accidentally threw away a winning scratch-off ticket and realized the mistake after the family had already taken the bag away; he dove into the trash in time and retrieved a ticket worth about R$ 506,000.

A single tank in the lake of a plant yields 90,000 kilos of tilapia every six months, and the company wants to multiply this by 500 to take Mato Grosso do Sul from 11th place to the top in the country.

The brute force of the waves turns into clean energy with almost no waste, as promised by a gyroscopic converter created in Japan that, in simulations, couples with the sea’s sway and reaches the maximum limit of 50% efficiency, leaving old marine generators behind.

A prefabricated wooden house with 70 m², three bedrooms, and a veranda costs the same as a new car in Brazil, around R$ 140,000, or 24,000 euros, and is for sale in Spain.

Four 755-meter cables will no longer cut through the sky of Sugarloaf Mountain: the canceled zipline project promised to transform the landmark into an attraction worth over R$ 100 million and ended before getting off the ground.

Suspended at more than 200m high, this bridge was built to replace a dangerous road and today offers a bungee jump with more than seven seconds of free fall over a gorge in South Africa; Get to know the Bloukrans Bridge.