Jerry and Marge Selbee figured out a way to make millions with a scheme to game the lottery. Photo / CBS
Jerry and Marge Selbee figured out a way to make millions with a scheme to game the lottery. Photo / CBS
Most of us dream of winning Lotto at some point, but see it as a game of pure chance.
But for one retired US man, winning the lottery is "simple math".
Jerry Selbee, now in his 80s, told The Hits radio hosts Jono Pryor and Ben Boyce about how he discovered a "loophole" in the game that ended up winning him over US$27 million ($43m).
It all began when he saw a brochure for a new lottery game called WinFall back in 2003, he explained.
"The way it worked, the jackpot was guaranteed to start at two million dollars. And if nobody won, it continued to build until it hit five million dollars," he said.
"At that point, if no one won, all the five million dollars rolled down into the smaller tier prizes, like the three number winners, the four number winners and the five number winners," he explained to the Kiwi radio hosts.
Selbee went on to explain that the loophole was "simple math".
"I looked at the brochure and the brochure listed the odds of getting a three number winner at one in 56 and two thirds.
Jono Pryor and Ben Boyce were shocked to learn how Jerry Selbee managed to game the lottery. Photo / The Hits
"The odds of getting a four number winner was one in 1,032. So I just looked at that and I said to myself, well, if I played $1,100, I would mathematically get one four number winner and 18 three number winners.
"The four number winner was projected to be worth a thousand dollars when the Winfall occurred. And the three number winners was projected to be worth $50 when the windfall occurred. And so I just added those together and that was a $1,900 return on a $1,100 bet."
At first, he played secretly, because the trick was playing more times. "You narrowed the possibility between the mathematical and the possible."
When his home state stopped that lottery, he and his wife Marge drove all the way to Massachusetts, where they would buy tickets all day for hours on end.
He told the radio hosts what he did was "absolutely legal".
"I created a paper trail, I had five federal audits and four state of Massachusetts audits and two Michigan audits and never had a problem."
Selbee's story has since been made into a movie starring Breaking Bad's Brian Cranston, who he told the radio hosts is a "very nice person".
Selbee enjoyed the movie despite a "little apprehension" at first.
"But the way they presented it, it's a good, wholesome feel-good story."
He added that he and his wife simply saved up their winnings - they're still living in the same house they've lived in for 37 years.
