A LOTTERY genius beat the system and scooped 14 massive jackpots – but where is he now?
Stefan Mandel cracked the code when he was desperate for cash – and ended up bagging himself thousands.
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After years of planning and mathematical research, the Romanian economist devised a “number-picking algorithm” which drew on a method he called “combinatorial condensation”.
Stefan realised that in some draws, the cost of buying enough tickets to play every possible combination was actually lower than the jackpot prize.
For example, if a game required six numbers ranging between 1 and 40 to be chosen, there would be 3,838,380 possible number combinations.
If the jackpot was £10 million, and tickets cost £1 each, he stood to win a massive profit.
Along with a group of friends, he formed a syndicate and bought huge amounts of tickets using all the possible combinations.
They took home the top prize — worth over £15,000 (7,700 Leu).
After paying his fellow team mates he was left with just £3,000 – but it was enough to bribe officials and escape Romania’s Communist system.
He moved to Australia to start a new life with his wife and two kids in the 1960s.
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This method eventually saw him win the lottery 14 times – and it was totally legal the whole time.
Stefan persuaded a pool of investors to put their cash together to build a lotto syndicate.
A lottery syndicate is formed when a group of people get together to put money into a pot for lottery tickets.
A syndicate manager will then buy the tickets and any winnings are shared out among the group.
His operation grew and grew until he had invented an automation system, with printers and computers using the algorithm to fill out tickets automatically using every combination of numbers.
The group won 12 lotteries and won hundreds of thousands of smaller prizes across Australia and the UK.
But eventually the authorities started to investigate Stefan and his syndicate.
Lotto officials changed the rules to ban bulk-buying tickets – and the use of computer-printed entries.
However, Stefan didn’t stop there.
PLAN B
With the profits he’d already pocketed, he planted scouts across the US and also developed a list of previous lotteries with jackpots that were at least three times higher than the total of all possible combinations.
He discovered the Virginia Lottery and made it his next target.
It only used numbers between one and 44 – which meant the total number of possible combinations was millions lower than in other games.
He set up an official company called Pacific Financial Resources, and under it also developed a trust called the International Lotto Fund.
Incredibly, the former economist persuaded thousands of investors to boost their funding pool by millions.
From a warehouse in Melbourne he employed 16 full-time staff to print out seven million tickets over three months, which he then mailed to an associate in the US.
The syndicate lucked out and took home the jackpot as well as a host of other, smaller prizes.
END OF AN EMPIRE
But while Mr Mandel’s method was not illegal, it still raised suspicions, and he was dragged into a four-year legal battle.
He was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing — but while he managed to pocket millions from the win, his investors were left with much smaller payouts that promised.
This led to Stefan filing for bankruptcy in 1995 and all US states have now passed laws banning the use of his strategy.
Despite his epic gamble, the jackpot scooper downplayed the risks he had faced during a 2012 interview with the Romanian newspaper, Bursa.
“I’m a man who takes risks, but in a calculated way,” he told the publication.
“Trimming my beard is a lottery: There is always the possibility that I’ll cut myself, get an infection in my blood and die — but I do it anyway.
“The chances are in my favour.”
The 89-year-old now lives on the tropical island of Vanuatu, where many of his disbanded syndicate retired to.
This comes as three pals won £1million after starting a lottery syndicate during their apprenticeships.
Meanwhile, one lottery winner was left fuming after his syndicate refused to cut his wife in on the prize money – after she picked the winning numbers.
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