A New Jersey man bought a $5 bottle of orange juice from Shoprite; his wife said it was too expensive and sent him back to return it, because it was on sale for $2.50 elsewhere. He then decided to buy 2 lottery tickets with the cash refunded from the orange juice; he won $315.3 million.
lottery
Iowa Man Tyler Heep won $1.00…
Iowa Man Tyler Heep won $1.00 from a scratch-off, drove to Lottery Headquarters, and demanded a gigantic novelty check. They wrote him out an oversized check and had him hold it up for a photo in a room set up with a camera and the Lottery logo. Heep used his winnings to buy 1/2 a gallon of gas.
The youngest ever powerball winner…
The youngest ever powerball winner was a 19-year-old from South Carolina who won a $35.3 million jackpot after he heard a voice and “the winning numbers in his head”.
A software developer rigged the lottery…
A software developer rigged the lottery software he coded in several states, so he would know what the winning numbers would be 3 days per year.
A British engineer won £1.5 million…
A British engineer won £1.5 million from a £2 bet. He correctly picked 6 winners in a running jackpot and bet on a horse that had lost 28 races.
In 1992, a man named Stefan Mandel…
In 1992, a man named Stefan Mandel won a $27,036,142 jackpot, 6 second prizes, 132 third prizes, and 135 minor prizes in one lottery, by buying every single combination possible – Over 5.5 million tickets. All 44 US states with lotteries have since changed their laws to prevent this.
When the results began coming…
When the results began coming in from the 30 March 2005 Powerball drawing, lottery officials suspected fraud was underway because 110 players claimed second prizes of $100,000 or $500,000. All 110 players and the jackpot winner got their numbers from fortune cookies.
In 1728, the philosopher Voltaire…
In 1728, the philosopher Voltaire got rich by outsmarting the lottery. The prize money was larger than the cost of all the tickets combined, so Voltaire and his friend formed a syndicate, bought all the tickets, and won several times.
A woman named Glenda Blackwell…
A woman named Glenda Blackwell bought a scratch off lottery ticket to prove to her husband that buying lottery tickets was a waster of money and accidentally ended up winning $1 million.
Jawdat Ibrahim, an Arab Israeli…
Jawdat Ibrahim, an Arab Israeli man, won $22m the Illinois lottery in 1990 and used his winnings to develop his home village of Abu Ghosh. The hummus restaurant he opened there has been used to host Israel-Palestine peace talks, and set the world record for largest Hummus.