A man who has remarkably won the lottery 14 times has revealed the surprisingly simple mathematical strategy he used to outsmart the odds.
Considering that the chances of winning the lottery are extremely low — about one in 302.5 million for the Mega Millions jackpot — it’s safe to say that most of us will never experience such a life-changing win.
However, Stefan Mandel managed to defy the odds and win the jackpot an astonishing 14 times — a feat that seems impossible in what’s supposed to be a pure game of chance.
But Mandel didn’t see it as luck. Instead, he relied on what he called “simple math” to essentially hack the lottery system — a formula that took him years to perfect.
His strategy involved creating a lottery syndicate, where a large group of people pooled their money to buy thousands of tickets, dramatically boosting their chances of hitting the winning combination.
Altogether, the group earned about $19,000, leaving Mandel with just under $4,000 — enough to relocate his family from Romania to Australia and begin a new chapter of their lives.
After settling in Australia, Mandel established his lottery syndicate, the International Lotto Fund (ILF), which remarkably went on to win 14 lotteries worldwide.
Although they didn’t always secure the top prize, the syndicate regularly collected significant winnings through their precise, mathematically driven strategy, claiming prizes across the United States, Australia, and Romania.
Although Mandel’s methods weren’t technically illegal, they did raise plenty of suspicion among authorities and international agencies — including the CIA and FBI — who launched investigations into him and the ILF.
In the end, both Mandel and his syndicate were cleared of any wrongdoing.
Still, the lengthy legal battles took their toll. Even though Mandel was acquitted of all charges, the entire ordeal left him facing serious financial difficulties.
The big winner eventually declared bankruptcy in 1995 — just three years after claiming a massive $27 million jackpot — and spent the following decade involved in various alleged investment ventures.
Mandel’s number-picking formula, which he called “combinatorial condensation,” was based on the idea of purchasing enough lottery tickets to cover every possible combination. His strategy proved so effective that U.S. authorities later introduced laws to prohibit it entirely.
Lottery regulations were soon updated to ban players from buying tickets in bulk or using computer-generated entries, effectively preventing anyone from repeating Mandel’s approach.
So, if you were thinking of trying your luck the same way — unfortunately, that loophole’s long gone.
