Knowing the winning lottery numbers is the dream of many.
One retiree has proven that knowing basic arithmetic can be more helpful. Jerry Selbee and his wife, Marge, have won dozens of winning tickets from two US state lotteries over the course of a decade.
They earned US$26 million (or R$140 million) between 2003 and 2012.
Aspect? Thanks to a simple statistical calculation that broke no rules and that Selbee solved instantly: “It took me less than two minutes to realize that this game could be profitable.”
His remarkable story was forgotten for a while by Hollywood until it was finally turned into a movie that was released in June of this year: Jerry and Marge Grow Up.
Bryan Cranston and Annette Bening star in the Paramount movie directed by David Frankel. Devil Wears Prada.
The film is loosely inspired by true events, but aims to reflect Selbee’s simplicity and how they keep their feet on the ground despite winning the lottery multiple times.
Caution: This text reveals some parts of the plot of the movie.
“It’s just basic arithmetic”
Selbee’s story is the opposite of Jordan Belfort, the New York financial and market manipulation expert portrayed in The Wolf of Wall Street.
The couple lived their entire lives in the small, sleepy town of Everett, Michigan.
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Jerry Selbee had retired one day when he came across an advertisement for the Windfall lottery game.
He read the fine print of the ad and, with his agile mathematical mind developed since his days at Western Michigan University, knew he had a great opportunity.
“I found a quirk,” Selbee said in an interview with CBS.
To win the Windfall draw, the player had to match all six numbers in the draw. If no one got it right, the prize was split between five, four, and three right-handers.
According to these rules, the chances of winning by depositing a good amount of money on lottery tickets are much higher than in drawings that do not distribute the prize among several winners.
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Selbee calculated that by spending $1,100 she would have at least one winning ticket #4.
“I won $1,000 from the 18 (ticket) to a number 4 ticket, and $900 for the 18 three-number winner, which was worth about $50 each. So after spending $1,100, I got about $1,900 back,” he said.
“It’s just simple arithmetic,” the retiree added, as if saying something obvious.
One company, hard work
Americans spend about $80 billion a year on government lottery games, an average of $250 per person.
Selbee spent a little more than that, but with such a high return on initial investment with the certainty of being a likely winner.
And it didn’t take long to raise the stakes. He continued to spend $3,600 and got back $6,300. Then he deposited $8,000 and pocketed $16,000.
Meanwhile, he told his wife what he had done.
The couple then began investing thousands more dollars and formed a company called GS Investment Strategies LLC to manage the prize money they earned. At one point, Selbee decided to invite others from their community and sold their stake in the company for $500.
They ranged from farmers to Everett lawyers. Some continued to invest larger sums. One of the top prizes, according to the couple’s accounting books, was $853,000.
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While this whole plan brought tremendous benefits to a retired couple with a lot of free time, it also took a lot of time and effort to get that many tickets.
Things got complicated when the Windfall Michigan lottery ended.
But a friend of the couple said there was a similar draw in the state of Massachusetts, thousands of miles from Everett. Selbee saw a new opportunity there, and the same logic might apply.
And it was the same with lotteries in other states.
Over the course of six years, the couple crossed six US states to use lottery ticket machines and play Cash Windfall at two stores.
On average, they spent about $600,000 about seven times a year.
Selbee spent 10 days at a hotel handing out tickets into 10 hour shifts? something “fun” considering the man who is now 80 years old.
“It’s been a pleasure to be successful in something that pays off not only for us personally, but also for our friends and family.”
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Was there anything illegal?
The adventure came to an end after 18 million lottery tickets were bought in 2012.
A journalistic study by The Boston Globe found that there are high-winning stores in Massachusetts with lottery ticket vending machines.
Selbee was not alone: There was another group, students from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), who also played a lot in Cash Windfall.
This prompted government officials to investigate what was going on, whether there were any fraudulent schemes or corruption in the game.
But to the surprise of prosecutors, no illegality took place.
“I was shocked, surprised, that these nerdy math geniuses found a legal way to win the state lottery and pocket millions from it,” Greg Sullivan, the investigator who led the investigation, told CBS.
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In fact, the actions of Selbee or the students didn’t stop the other Cash Windfall players from hitting all six points at once, something that would have ruined the investments of the retired couple or the MIT boys.
The Cash Windfall lottery was eventually canceled and today there is no such lottery in the country that guarantees such high returns possibilities.
But by that time, Selbee had earned millions of dollars, which they used to fund her grandchildren’s education.
And the couple still owns over 60 tons of Windfall lottery tickets just in case any audits are needed.
– Text published at https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/geral-62133938.
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source: Noticias
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