Many people play lotteries without ever winning anything substantial, but Romanian economist Stefan Mandel has been lucky a whopping 14 times and has shared his secrets. With millions upon millions of different combinations, you either need to get incredibly lucky, buy thousands of tickets, or have a smart strategy.
In a resurfaced YouTube clip, Mandel explained in an interview his strategy to wining the lottery with the help of the International Lotto Fund (ILF) syndicate, which has claimed 14 jackpots across the globe. Mandel said: "Theoretically, anybody can buy all the possible combinations.
"Any high school boy or girl can calculate those combinations. Nobody has ever developed a logistical system to lodge such a large amount of play slips. We were the only winners and that was it."
Mandel figured out that sometimes the price of buying enough lottery tickets to play every possible combination was far less than the jackpot prize and could make big profits doing so. The businessman then convinced thousands of investors to increase their IFL funding by millions in order to go after bigger jackpots.
As part of this, Mandel sent scouts out across the world to find winnable lotteries. Mandel targeted a lottery in Virginia, where the rules on picking six numbers between one and 44 meant there was 'only' 7,059,052 possible outcomes.
The Romanian also says that the fact Virginia, in the USA, allowed individuals to purchase tickets and print them at home, was a massive bonus. It meant buying many tickets was not awkward or suspicious, though what they were doing was not illegal. Mandel says all they needed was 30 computers to buy and continuously print tickets.
The syndicate's big win came in February 1992, when they won the jackpot of $27m and scooped up $900k in additional prizes. This is because they also had every other winning ticket.
In the aftermath of the win, 14 international agencies investigated him and the ILF, including the CIA and FBI. However, he and the ILF were cleared of any wrongdoing.
Mandel pocketed a fortune from his syndicate and even won money in the UK. But filed for bankruptcy in 1995 after multiple legal battles took heir toll and investors complained of not receiving what they were owed.
Now 89, the jackpot winner reportedly lives on the tropical island Vanuatu in the South Pacific Ocean and has declared himself retired from the lottery.
