The story started in the spring of 2023, when London banker-turned-bookmaker Bernard Marantelli wanted to buy every ticket combination in an upcoming Texas lottery to guarantee the.
WTF?! It’s something many people have thought about: when a lottery jackpot reaches an enormous figure, would it be possible to buy every combination of numbers to guarantee a win? There are plenty of reasons why this is usually impossible or just doesn’t work, but a team that included a legendary gambler showed it could be done by winning a $95 million Texas lottery jackpot.
The story started in the spring of 2023, when London banker-turned-bookmaker Bernard Marantelli wanted to buy every ticket combination in an upcoming Texas lottery to guarantee the jackpot win, which was closing in on $95 million.
With tickets priced at $1 each and 25.8 million combinations, the profit would be almost $60 million, writes the Wall Street Journal. This assumes no one else picked the winning combination; otherwise, the prize would have been split.
Marantelli put together a team that included famed Tasmanian gambler Zeljko Ranogajec (aka John Wilson), who bankrolled the operation. His reputation for pulling off capers at gambling venues had earned him the nickname « The Joker. »
The plan was to use the machines that allow people to play the lottery by picking their numbers and receiving a printed ticket.
