How low is the chance of winning the lottery jackpots?

New Zealand statisticians once calculated

This is even lower than being struck by lightning and having a blood relationship with the Queen of England

Or being trampled to death by an elephant while taking selfies

But today I’m going to talk about

who won the lottery jackpots for 14 times in his whole life

And  two countries modified the lottery management regulations for him.

His name is Stefan Mandel

First try

Stefan Mandel is an economist from Romania

In the 1960s, Romania was still a socialist country

At that time, the whole country was very poor, and the people lived a hungry life.

At that time, the young Mandel worked as an accountant in a mining group

To support his wife and two young children with a monthly salary of only US$88

As the child grew up, the financial situation of the Mandel family became more and more distressed

In order to make money quickly, he, just like many people, had the idea of ​​falling pie in the sky!

But instead of waiting, he used his talents to calculate where the pie fell.

Mathematician at the weekend

Mandel really likes numbers,

he even used all his free time to analyze the papers of Italian mathematician Fibonacci

After several years of research, he wrote a set of “number selection method”

According to his opinion

Using this algorithm, 5 out of 6 winning numbers can be accurately predicted

It reduce the number combinations in the lottery from millions to thousands

He summoned his friends to take a huge risk bought a lot of lottery tickets on the most likely combination he had calculated

Eventually ,everything went as he wished

Mandel won the first prize of his life.

It’s 78,783 Romani Lei, equivalent to 1,9300 US dollars

In 1960s, this amount of money was astronomical ,it’s bout the sum of his 18 years of salary

In an interview with a local magazine, he said

“I am a weekend mathematician, an accountant without much education, but the correct application of numbers can indeed bring wealth.”

In this way, Mandel relied on the first pot of gold earned from the lottery to pay off his debts

And bribe the remaining money to Romanian government officials

Finally successfully fled Romania with his wife and two children

Started a new life in Australia

Mysterious formula

Of course, considering that the lottery numbers should be completely random

Does his formula worked?

It is worthwhile to ruminate

Because afterwards he abandoned this algorithm

Maybe he also knows that this award is indeed favored by Goddess of Luck

In the end , Stefan Mandel still did not announce his mysterious formula

“Just like Coca-Cola won’t disclose its formula.”

In an interview, he said so

I think it’s reasonable to keep his little secret

But what he is really good at is the way to master the wealth code later

Winning once may be lucky, but winning 14 times?

He is definitely a ruthless character