Winning the lottery is no easy feat, let alone winning it 14-times. It is precisely what Romanian born economist Stefan Mandel achieved. What makes his exploit more impressive is that he did it legitimately. Many people are trying to replicate his formula, but we decided we should tell you how to win the lottery with the Stefan Mandel algorithm and how he raked in millions of winnings.
Where it All Started
Stefan Mandel's story began in poverty-stricken Romania during their communist era. There weren't many legit ways to supplement your income, but there was a government-sanctioned lottery during the 1950s. Mandel was working at a mining consortium as an economist when he hatched the idea of trumping the lottery odds. After working on his method, he came up with a solution that could predict five of the six winning lotto numbers. Mandel knew that the lottery was his way out of the country and his way to freedom.
It took him around 4-years to finally implement his formula with three of his friends. The jackpot they won amounted to $15 522,75 and equalled 18 years of his salary as an economist for the mine.
After the Win
During the 1980s, he found himself in Australia and eventually gained citizenship in the country with his family. At that time, Australia was a commonwealth country, allowing him to participate in the UK lottery system.
How the Strategy Worked
The Mandel method worked best on smaller lotteries with fewer possible winning combinations. After reaching Australia, Mandel began laying the grown works for his lottery business. He left the old formula and developed a new strategy that was far less complicated. This time around, he didn’t try to predict the winning combination but chose to play as many tickets as possible.
In no time at all, he had many people buying tickets for him and submitting them at stores all around the country. The operation grew so much that he ended up with receipts that he had to keep in storage.
As soon as the winning combination was announced, he would claim his winnings. The winnings were split with the investors and gave a portion to the ticket buyers.
There weren't any laws preventing him from playing the system this way, which made it legit. Later on, the laws and regulations made it impossible for him to play his plan, and he ended his operation in the country and moved to the United States. During his time in Australia, he won the lottery 12 times.
His Last Big Win
By the time he reached the United States, he had already won the lotto 13 times. He figured he needed one last big payout before calling it quits forever. During the late 90s, the United States had no laws about exploiting the lottery market and used it.
He ended up taking on the Virginia lottery, which had 7.1 million number combinations. The tickets for this lottery were also the least expensive around. He managed to get $7.1 million through investors and paid $1 per ticket. It allowed him to play every possible combination in Virginia's lotto. He waited nearly 2-years before he executed his plan because, at that point, the lotto jackpot was $27 million. His plan went off without a glitch, and he was the sole winner of the jackpot.
Final Thoughts
Stefan Mandel is an inspiration to many people who believe that you can beat the system if you apply some of your wisdom. Creating this system ensured that he would live a life he only dreamt of while in poverty-stricken Romania.