He won the lottery 14 times using mathematics, but his biggest prize was through luck

Stefan Mandel had a problem. In the 1960s, he lived under the oppressive regime of Romania Communist. It was a problem he shared with millions of people, but Mandel, an economist by training and a specialist in digital issues, he proposed a fairly new solution. He decided that he would win the lottery.

Now, as the Powerball jackpot rises to USD 750 million dollars -the fourth most important prize in the history of the United States-, you can also decide to play the lottery. However, Mandel had a way to earn that worked better than a rabbit's leg, the librarianship or typing on wood.

Mandel calculated that if you bought tickets with some number blocks, could guarantee a win in second place.

He convinced two friends, his first "investors", participate in the plan with him.

They did not win second place. they won the first.

"We won 72,783 leu – Romanian currency – ($ 17,184.43), which equates to about 18 years of salary, "Mandel told Planet Money in 2016.

Mandel used his earnings for escape Romania with his wife and childrenand finally settled in Australia. And that's where he perfected his plan.

Using a room full of printers and a computer program that he created, Mandel discovered the logistics of buying each combination of numbers in one lottery that would guarantee him a victory.

All he needed was money to buy all the tickets. So he found more and more investors, to whom he promised a part of the profits.

It worked Him and his investors won the lottery. So they won again. And another time. Mandel won 12 times in the 1980s, according to an interview that he made with the TV show in the 90s, "How did they do that?"

Finally, Australia has made so many changes to its lottery laws that he could no longer run his business.

(Taylor Turner / The Washington Post)

But 13 wins were not lucky enough for Mandel. So he turned to the United States and the Virginia lottery. It became his goal because, at the time, Virginia had fewer combinations of numbers than other lotteries. Mandel concluded that only It would cost $ 7.1 million to buy each ticket. In addition, he could legally print and complete his ticket at home.

Mandel raised funds from thousands of investors and then he waited for a bag big enough to justify his daring plan. In February 1992, he finally succeeded. The Virginia lottery had grown to $ 27 million, a huge amount at that time, which gave Mandel three days to buy all digit combinations. From Australia.

First turned on 30 computers and 12 laser printers produce the tickets. "We use something like 20 or 30 tons of paper," he told the 90s television show "How they did it." Then he prepared $ 60,000 to send them to Virginia. From there, a businessman named Anithalee Alex Jr., who worked for Mandel, organized a dozens of meters to get to the gas stations and grocery stores in the Norfolk area make wholesale purchases with bank checks.

Everything went well for two days. But a few hours before the closing of the shop window, one of the stores stopped selling them. In the end, they only had paid between five and six million tickets. The infallible plan was not so foolproof, and even if he was likely to win, It was always lucky.

"We had five guys looking for the ticket in the boxesAlex said: "When the $ 27 million bill arrived, everyone jumped one meter off the ground. "

Not only did they win the jackpot, but, according to the Hustle website, they also They got another million by getting hundreds of smaller prizes.

The Australian Securities Commission and the FBI have investigated. And the Virginia Lottery has been trying to stop the payment for a while. But everything was perfectly legal at the time, but not today. Lottery manager Ken Thorson complained about the plan and told the Washington Post: "We may remember Thomas Jefferson's opinion on the lottery, which is an opportunity for the common man to spend a small amount for the possibility of a jackpot"

Speaking of small sums, here is the thing: Mandel's 2,500 investors did not become wealthy. According to The Hustle, after the payment of taxes and the payment to dozens of people necessary for the realization of the plan, the group achieved a return of approximately $ 1,400 on a $ 4,000 investment. Conveniently, Mandel received a consultant fee of $ 1.7 million.

As a creator of international money, Mandel attempted to start his own lottery in Gibraltar in 1993 and spent some time in an Israeli prison for fraud. But in 2016, when Planet Money spoke to him, he was living in a beach house in the South Pacific, far from the Powerball frenzy that grabbed the United States every time a jackpot went up.