U.S. Lottery Winners cash in $95 million Prize
By: Matthias Friess, Spiced Up by Angela Burke, Published on: 21.04.2025, Updated on: 24.04.2025
- The Audacious Texas Lotto Win: $95 Million Scored Through Strategy
- 25.5 Million Tickets Sold Aimed to Redefine Probability
- Lottery Winners Kept Their Cool through Shrewd Planning
The Texas Lotto Jackpot and the Math Whizzes Behind It
What do an Australian gambling tycoon and a former banker have in common? They're the duo that, in April 2023, outsmarted the Texas state lottery system and bagged a whopping $95 million [Link in English]. Their techniques have startled the gambling world.
The brainchild behind this dazzling jackpot? A carefully crafted system designed to cover nearly every conceivable combination for the Texas lottery, giving them the best chance to hit the big time. Read on to discover how they reeled in their catch.
Setting Up Shop: The Gamblers' Retail Ruse
To execute their master plan, they set up four of their own lottery retail outlets, alongside Lottery.com as a service provider. This alliance granted them access to the official lottery infrastructure, including state-of-the-art printing terminals for Texas lottery tickets.
Their chosen locations veered from the conventional, ranging from an abandoned warehouse to a former dental practice. The presence of these printing terminals proved crucial, enabling them to churn out millions of tickets within a short time and store them in the Texas lottery system under the radar.
Playing the Numbers: A High-Stakes Numbers Game
Zeljko Ranogajec, the infamous gambling mastermind, and Bernard Marantelli, a former derivatives trader, along with their resilient team, invested around $25.8 million in lottery tickets [5].
Spreading out in shifts, they generated over 100 lottery tickets per second, with each second bringing them closer to covering nearly every possible combination in the April 22, 2023, Texas lottery drawing. In the end, they created over 25.5 million tickets [5], missing only a minuscule fraction of all possible combinations.
The Winning Ticket: A Perfect Match
After their diligent efforts, one of those tickets mirrored the winning combination of 3, 5, 18, 29, 30, and 52. Given that no other ticket shared this exact sequence, they scooped the entire jackpot for themselves.
An initial lump-sum payout of $57.8 million (adjusted for tax deductions) was claimed by their company, Rook TX, which chose to maintain their identities incognito.
The Backlash: Americans Growl Over the Biggest Scam in Texas History
The Texas lottery winners' cunning strategy sparked fierce backlash among Americans. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick called it "the biggest theft from the residents in the history of Texas." However, law enforcers found no evidence of criminal activities and thus ended their investigations [4].
In response, the Texas Lottery Commission made adjustments to their lottery software, limiting the number of daily tickets a terminal can process. However, they declined to disclose the exact number.
Unclaimed Prizes: A Familiar Sight in US Lotteries
Intriguing incidents involving unclaimed lottery wins are common in popular American lotteries like Mega Millions and Powerball. Just last year, a million-dollar prize in Florida went unclaimed as its legal claim period of 180 days passed with no takers.
Whether it's crystal clear greed or mere forgetfulness, unclaimed prizes remain a peculiar trait in major US lotteries.
Source:
- Campanaro, J. Intrepid Australian Gambler 'The Joker' Wins Big in U.S. Lottery with System
- How One Gambling Squad Owned 25.5 Million Texas Lottery Tickets
- The Joker's Secret to Winning $95 Million in the Texas Lotto Scandal
- How a System and a Billionaire Became the Right Mix for a $95 Million Texas Lotto Win
- How They Cracked the Code: The Texas Jackpot that Launched a Gambling Revolution
- What is surprising about the duo that won $95 million in the Texas lottery in April 2023 is that they are an Australian gambling tycoon and a former banker who outsmarted the Texas state lottery system.
- To win the Texas lottery jackpot, the duo created a system that covered nearly every conceivable combination for the Texas lottery, which allowed them to have the best chance to hit the big time.
- To execute their plan, they set up four of their own lottery retail outlets and used Lottery.com as a service provider, giving them access to the official lottery infrastructure and enabling them to churn out millions of tickets.
- In the end, one of the tickets generated by the duo mirrored the winning combination, and they scooped the entire jackpot of $95 million.
- The Americans were outraged by the duo's cunning strategy of winning the Texas lottery, with some calling it the biggest scam in Texas history, but law enforcers found no evidence of criminal activities.
