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.
