The Biggest Loser

I once worked with a man who won the lottery several times. He would play at the gas stations down the road from the job. Sometimes he would use the money to buy his coworkers snacks or a meal. Other times he would use the money to build a back patio or add a room to his house. Yes, he won that much money. I saw it for myself.

The craziest part about it is he only had a 5^th grade education. And he only spoke Spanish.

I don’t know how he figured out how to win, but he would do it consistently. But then he would go several months without playing. He said he did so because he did not want to lose self-control and become addicted. He didn’t want it to become his downfall.

That is a rare man right there.

Another rare man was Stefan Mandel. He was a Romanian-Australian economist who won the lottery 14 times using mathematical strategy rather than luck.

Keep in mind, this was before the age of AI. He didn’t have ChatGPT or any of its cousins to help him.

On his own, presumably, he developed a method called “combinatorial condensation”. It was all based on probabilities. He somehow reduced certain lotteries down to a smaller number of probable combinations. Then he pooled investor money to buy nearly every ticket, guaranteeing a profit when jackpots were high enough.

In 1992, Mandel won one of his biggest jackpots: $27 million. That’s $62.3 million now (adjusted for inflation). He successfully demonstrated, again and again, that reason could outsmart chance, at least temporarily.

With his money, he started an insurance company and other businesses, but they didn’t go well. Due to those failed businesses and other legal battles, he faced mounting financial troubles and eventually declared bankruptcy.

Reason may outsmart chance, but Proverbs 13:11 says wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.

So where did this mathematical and probability genius go wrong? A full answer is for smarter people than me to answer. I haven’t taken the time to research his businesses or all the detail that led to his fall. I’m sure it is full of bad breaks and many things beyond his control.

But I am also sure some of it was his own fault.

I am not saying he was an ignorant, greedy slouch. He was obviously smart and diligent.

Maybe he should have spent more time becoming a skilled businessman instead of a lottery hacker. Maybe he should have spent more time learning to be a leader of people so he could have better managed the people working for him. Maybe he took too many risks and thought he could compensate his losses with lottery money. Maybe he was too confident.

It is good that he eventually opted for a more dignified and sustainable line of work: building a business and providing value to people as opposed to cashing in on scams of hopeless, ignorant or greedy people. His latter choices seem to align with the second part of the scripture I quoted.

If that is the case, why did he fail? Again, that is a complicated question to answer. No business plan or crafty scheme is certain. As it says in Ecclesiastes, time and chance happen to us all. But the option with the greatest probability of sustainable success is actually dedicating yourself to something that provides value for society and solves people’s problems, not number games for cash.

The lottery or some other chance payday is not your way out.

Maybe that is what hurt him in the long run. His first lottery prize enabled him to escape communist Romania (when you’re desperate, the lottery is quite attractive). In the end, however, it may have also sown the seeds to what took him down.

Maybe Mr. Mandel should have read the Bible more.

Maybe these scriptures could have spared him from being the biggest loser:

Proverbs 8:10-11 Choose my instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than choice gold,11 for wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her.

Proverbs 11:28 “Whoever trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like a green leaf.”

Maybe we should all ponder these scriptures more often and more deeply.

Proverbs 15:16 “Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble with it.”