Virginia jackpot on 27 millions
Mandel knew, that the method of winning the lottery using the “buy all combinations” principle is especially difficult not only from a financial point of view, how much from a logistics point of view?. The hardest part of the job was yet to come.
Tickets could be legally printed at home, but they still needed to be transferred to the official retailer, authorized to sell lottery tickets in the USA, pay (by $1 for a ticket) and process. Of course you can't taxi to a gas station with 1,4 million tickets and a cache trailer.
Mandel turned to the auditing firm Lowe Lippmann, instructing them to translate $ 9 millions in investor funds to Crestar Bank in Boston, where this amount was divided into $10k checks, which must be signed by the cashier. He then made deals up front with Virginia-based retailers., so that they buy large quantities of tickets from him. The only thing missing from the scheme was a reliable person on earth, who could conduct this whole coven.
Mandel offered this role to a distinguished colleague named Enizali Alex..
Enizali Alex, retired paratrooper, already burned himself in the oil business, was the strangest candidate for the role of chief in Virginia of all, who could Mandel have picked? (Illustration by The Hustle; picture from ‘How’d They Do That’?’, 1992)
Alex, who never took off his gold Rolex and sported camouflage for safari, was so sweet-tongued, that he could show anyone “the sky in diamonds”. From a paratrooper he retrained as a Rolls-Royce salesman., then went into oil exploration. He lived in the town of Tewtopolis, Illinois, where he could often be found walking around wearing a T-shirt with the words: "Oh my God, let me prove, that winning the lottery will not corrupt me.”
Mandel and Alex have been friends for a long time. When Mandel called, Alex just returned from court, where his bankruptcy case was heard: he was $400k in debt and had 16 maxed out credit cards. He was ready to do anything - any job.
The work ahead was hellish: he was obliged to coordinate the launch, payment and processing 1,4 million lottery tickets at hundreds of locations throughout Virginia.
Jackpot reached $15,5 million on Wednesday, and the next draw was planned for Saturday. Thus, Mandel's comrades knew everything about everything 72 o'clock.
“The most incredible thing in the world”
Mandel knew, What, if not close 100% combinations, his entire strategy turns into a multi-million dollar guessing game.
He knew about earlier inglorious attempts to win American lotteries by buying tickets en masse: V 1990 year, a retiree from Sacramento bought 30 thousand tickets for cash, filled a whole diaper bag - and left with nothing. Later, some programmer under the nickname “Phantom” bought 80 000 Jacksonville lottery combinations, Florida, and only won small prizes.
Even if Mandel had the winning ticket, there was still a possibility, that there will be several winners, and in this case the jackpot would be seriously stolen.
IN 11:20 morning 15 February draw started; the process was shown on TV. Alex and the team watched this, sitting nearby in a warehouse and barely breathing.
And then they burst out screaming: victory!
Newspapers around the world wrote about Mandel's win. (selection of American and Australian newspapers, 1992 year)
“When the ticket for $27 millions, everyone seemed to be flying on wings", – Alex said later, - “it was the most incredible thing in the world”. The winning ticket was purchased at Farm Fresh in Chesapeake and issued in the evening. That's what Alex's integrity was worth.
Mandel, being at home in Australia, sent it to my 2524 investors sms: “One of the lotteries we selected gave a jackpot at the level we needed. We entered it and won".
Jackpot in $27 036 142 (and smaller prizes worth $900k) further had to be paid in 20 annual tranches for $1,03 million. But Virginia lottery bigwigs had other plans..
hit or miss
Mandel began to look for lotteries, in which the jackpot was at least three times the purchase price of all possible combinations.
So he printed out the entire set of tickets for six American lotteries, including, Massachusetts (jackpot $37 million at 9 millions for all combinations), Arizona ($11 million at 5,1 millions) and Virginia.
The Virginia lottery had several advantages. She was brand new, players were allowed to purchase tickets in unlimited quantities and print them at home. But most importantly, that the numbers in it were chosen from a range of everything from 1 to 44 (in other states this set reached 54). Thus, for a set of 6 there were “only” numbers 7 059 052 possible combinations, and in other lotteries - as a rule, more 25 millions.
Up: One of the New York Times headlines for 1992 year. At the bottom: Virginia lottery ticket for 1992 year (from the NYT archives)
Mandel teamed up with a major insurance company, with which the fictitious shell corporation Pacific Financial Resources was created. He went on to found a trust called the International Lottery Fund (MLF) and convinced 2 560 people buy a 10-year comprehensive life insurance program, where the annual insurance premium was $4k. Mandel then legally used the money to, to buy everyone a lottery lottery.
In a warehouse in Melbourne he installed 30 computers and 12 laser printers, and also hired full time 16 employees. They had to print millions of tickets, which were pre-filled with all possible combinations. The whole process took three months. He then sent the person in charge in the US a ton of paper, spending $60k on it.
When did the tickets arrive in Virginia?, Mandel could only wait, until the jackpot reaches that amount, which would be profitable to withdraw taking into account taxes, costs and contributions to investors.
State lottery prizes typically start in the millions and increase after each drawing., in which it was not possible to identify a winner (when you see these crazy jackpots $758 millions, it means, that no one has won the lottery for a long time.) Mandel had to predict the moment to throw, since it would be best to exclude the option, in which there would be many winners. In this case, they would steal the prize and ruin its margin.
12 February 1992 Virginia lottery jackpot reached $15,5 million. Mandel gave his "foot soldiers" the order to act.
And no one - not even Mandel himself - could have foreseen, what madness will erupt as a result.
