Stefan Mandel never trusted luck. He trusted numbers.

Back when most people bought one ticket and hoped, he asked a sharper question. What if the math could shrink the odds? So he studied lottery rules for years. Then he built a plan that relied on volume, not wishes.

First, he formed a syndicate. People pooled their cash. Next, they bought stacks of tickets together. That simple shift changed everything. Early wins brought in about $19,000. Mandel kept just under $4,000. Even so, it was enough to move his family from Romania to Australia and start again.

After that, he went bigger. His group, the International Lotto Fund, chased lotteries across countries, including Australia, Romania, and the United States. They didn’t always land the jackpot. Still, they won again and again—14 times in total—because their method aimed to cover as many number combinations as possible when the jackpot made the risk worthwhile.

Of course, success drew attention. Investigators circled. Agencies looked hard at the operation. However, they found no illegal play, and Mandel and his team were cleared.

Even so, the legal fights drained him. He later declared bankruptcy in 1995. Meanwhile, lotteries rewrote the rules. They restricted bulk buying and computer-printed tickets. In the end, Mandel didn’t break the system. He forced it to change.