British pro gambler took aim at $25.8M CT Lotto jackpot, buying hundreds of thousands of tickets

Comment #23

Igamble — Sun, 01 Dec 2019 01:16:21 GMT

its possible that he could get a tax refund back home for the losses. and also collect 300-500k from the little winnings. They probably have a net worth of 75-100million ! 2 mill. is just a fancy car....

Comment #22

KY Floyd — Thu, 28 Nov 2019 00:38:40 GMT

I'm not rooting for the guy. I'm simply pointing out that accounting for the chance of winning as much as he might have won the risk was sensible as one of a series of bets. Nobody wins at all if they don't make any bets, and nobody wins every bet they make.

Comment #21

GuesssWork — Tue, 26 Nov 2019 11:31:49 GMT

it was not a Winfall game

By pointing to that game my only point was to inform you that the professional gambler was partaking in a lottery venue that was not flawed. One thing he missed is that if he knew absolutely something about what he gambled on he would have won the jackpot. Ego. He said, I'M going to win the jackpot. He sure did win alot of smaller prizes but i wonder like in the winfall game did he recover his money he invested and then some .. was that an investment is his case or... [ More ]

Comment #20

KY Floyd — Tue, 26 Nov 2019 04:56:28 GMT

In the end the smart one never covered enough bets

That shows that you have absolutely no understanding of it. This story is about one single bet, and tells us nothing about the other bets he has made.

professional gambler = psychological issues = chasing the high or rush.

I imagine that's true for some people, but a professional gambler is just somebody who makes (at least part of) their living by gambling.

Who cares, about expectation math

People who want to apply some logi... [ More ]

Comment #19

GuesssWork — Sat, 23 Nov 2019 13:35:34 GMT

*too many

Comment #18

GuesssWork — Sat, 23 Nov 2019 13:04:29 GMT

Half full or Half empty? for me one two many coin flips if i had to wager. To each their own i'd say.

Comment #17

GuesssWork — Sat, 23 Nov 2019 12:59:49 GMT

Math can't increase your chances of winning, but it does tell you how good or bad a bet is based on the risk, the reward, and the odds by telling you what the expectation ratio is. This guy made that bet because he knew that it had an expectation ratio of about 3:1 and any losses will be averaged out with

at least you agree that math did not help him.. he was not even in the parking lot of the ball park to even coming close to the jackpot. In the end anyone who plays these games need alot mor... [ More ]

Comment #16

KY Floyd — Sat, 23 Nov 2019 07:30:01 GMT

The dumb lottery officials were scratching their heads or laughing hysterically as to this smart guy's basic math lacking skills.

They might be laughing at the idiots who create wheels and then spend $5, $10, or $20 dollars drawing after drawing, because they know that those people aren't betting based on aa sensible analysis of the risk and the potential reward. They knew that this guy's strategy wasn't based on imaginary math, and actually made sense. In both cases they're happy to see peo... [ More ]

Comment #15

Murgatroyd — Fri, 22 Nov 2019 23:51:11 GMT

It was a calculated risk. Think of it like this: You have a few million dollars to spare, and someone offers you a bet. Flip two coins. If they both come up heads, you win $25M, otherwise you lose a bit under $2M. Do you take the bet or not

Comment #14

GuesssWork — Fri, 22 Nov 2019 10:50:15 GMT

so let me get this straight.. Would you have taken that same chance if you had the funds to do so based on your 1 in 4 chance example you show he had? Just curious is all

Comment #13

GuesssWork — Fri, 22 Nov 2019 10:35:45 GMT

wait, He knew going in to it he may not win it and that the odds were about 1-2 in 7 for him

His take on winning was skewed then through math or lacking of basic math, but hey he's just a hard core gambler and will wager on anything.

If 1-2 in 7 is what you're saying he had then he started out to fail.Why, what's the flip side of what your suggesting, is what he was actually up against so therefore he could not have thought up an actual clear win strategy through from the start or maybe he... [ More ]

Comment #12

GuesssWork — Fri, 22 Nov 2019 10:20:10 GMT

it remains unclear absent any comment from him what calculations he made in deciding it was worth the risk to buy so many random Quick Picks. Despite the huge number of tickets purchased, he couldn't come close to covering all 7,059,052 possible combinations of six numbers out of a field of 44

Um what went wrong here with this guys mathmatical prowess and probability math? Numbers don't lie but he thunk he had an icicles chance in hell to survive, to win. The dumb lottery officials were scrat... [ More ]

Comment #11

Raven62 — Fri, 15 Nov 2019 15:30:41 GMT

As it turns out: The Jackpot was Scooped Up by another:

https://www.lotterypost.com/news/329739

Comment #10

KY Floyd — Fri, 15 Nov 2019 05:35:02 GMT

Arrogance.

He's just not stupid. He had about a 1 in 4 chance of winning and the jackpot was worth almost 15 times as much as he was risking. He also knew that while there was a chance that somebody else would also have a winning ticket he would have know that it was only a very small chance. Based on the expectation value his bet was statistically better than any bet that anybody here has ever made for a jackpot game.

Comment #9

user34 — Sun, 10 Nov 2019 20:41:33 GMT

With enough time and money he could have won it for sure. The odds are about 1 in 7 mil. which means that's how many different possible combinations of numbers there are. The payout is much more than $7 mil.

He knew going in to it he may not win it and that the odds were about 1-2 in 7 for him. He also knew that the drawing is very transparent and open in CT so there wasn't a risk of illegal action by lottery officials towards his efforts behind closed doors.

Comment #8

TheGameGrl — Sun, 10 Nov 2019 17:34:08 GMT

He assumed no one else could possibly have a winning ticket. Arrogance.

Chances don't change .

Comment #7

msharkey2001 — Sun, 10 Nov 2019 11:27:22 GMT

Wow I thought I was bad when I bought 5 lines of Connecticut Lotto! for 26 drawings back in August spending $125. Was down there on vacation and noticed the high jackpot and decided to spend a little cash. I m not from CT myself, but I hope somebody local won it.

Comment #6

user34 — Sat, 09 Nov 2019 19:11:38 GMT

After I checked that CT Lotto is a physical ball set drawing I see why Marantelli went ahead with it and spoke openly to a lottery official about it. The CT Lottery says Lottery drawings are open to the public for viewing.

Marantelli had a 1 in 7 or 2 in 7 chance to win with 1 mil. or 2 mil. plays respectively.

This reminds me of Jerry and Marge Selbee who made an incredible amount by buying hundreds of thousands of tickets in certain games that at times had profitable odds if the J... [ More ]

Comment #5

KY Floyd — Sat, 09 Nov 2019 08:01:17 GMT

what an extremely dumb man

More likely he just has a different opinion about the risk:reward ratio than some people. By spending $2 million he'd definitely win based on the game's probability, which should be somewhere in the neighborhood of 600k. That would give him just about a 1 in 4 chance of winning a jackpot worth almost 15 times as much as the $1.4 million he was risking.

a proper multi-play wager online with Pick 4 would've actually MADE him big money

Because he's not a moron... [ More ]

Comment #4

Lucky Loser — Sat, 09 Nov 2019 04:12:48 GMT

Sorry but, what an extremely dumb man and his money in this specific regard. He was riding on pure, unadulterated hope when he could've actually dropped that same money on a real good stock and made some real good money. More so, a proper multi-play wager online with Pick 4 would've actually MADE him big money but, that would've likely just been chump change to him. He'd rather lose all that money than to actually guarantee winning some chump change. Let it sink in.....

Comment #3

cottoneyedjoe — Sat, 09 Nov 2019 00:12:47 GMT

Back in the UK all his friends will ask him if he made a trip to NYC while he was there (it's about an hour train ride). Little do they know the real national treasure is right there in Stamford: weekly tapings of the Maury Show. He could have watched national treasure Maury Povich himself utter those famous words, Daquan, you ARE the father

Comment #2

Raven62 — Fri, 08 Nov 2019 20:02:47 GMT

Sometimes Life Laughs At Your Best Laid Plans

Comment #1

NY10 — Fri, 08 Nov 2019 20:01:03 GMT

These lottery officials must have intentionally let another person win the jackpot instead of Bernerd and take his money for the states

How come some one win now after almost 2 years

British pro gambler took aim at $25.8M CT Lotto jackpot, buying hundreds of thousands of tickets

Lottery Post — Fri, 08 Nov 2019 19:36:13 GMT

Lottery officials monitored everything as it happened

Good afternoon, Pete. Just letting you know that we have been monitoring the sales of an individual who is spending an enormous amount of money on the lotto game.

That's what Mark Walerysiak, the security director at the Connecticut Lottery Corp. (CLC), wrote in an email on Oct. 28 to Peter Hsieh, the gaming division director for the state Department of Consumer Protection (DCP).

The email was the beginning of an intriguing yarn ab... [ More ]