Jerry and Marge Go Large: 60 Minutes’ original story on the Selbees’ lottery loophole

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From 2019, Jon Wertheim’s report on Jerry and Marge Selbee, a retired Michigan couple who made $26 million using “basic arithmetic” to crack the code on certain lottery games

#lottery #60minutes #news

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44 COMMENTS

  7. Iooked up the name of the movie and found out it’s based in real life o never thought about it but I guess someone would have to find a loophole in the lottery eventually

  8. Doesnt making money on this rely on nobody winning the jackpot? I understand a rolldown but surely theres still a chance someone hits 6 numbers and the money doesnt roll down? What am i missing?

  11. Who is here after watching the new movie…. omg these people are ADORABLE!!! And Bryan Cranston nailed the role!! And real life Marge…. wow she is gorgeous!!

  20. Boston globe never did a story on the lottery when everyone was losing but when someone figured out the loophole and started winning they jump right on it, I wonder who was that anonymous tipper who put Boston globe on the trail in the first place

  22. For anyone who is curious about the math, here is the best laymen's explanation I can offer:

    1). The lottery is essentially about playing for a winning combination of numbers. There is only one combination that serves as the winning combination. Let's just say there is a game with 50 possible numbers, with one of them as the winner. If you play a number, you have a 1/50 chance of winning the game if the game is truly random.

    2) Take the same game, and assume it costs $1 to play a number with a possible payout of $30 for selecting the right number. Theoretically, you could guarantee yourself the payout of $30 by playing every single number possible in the game. That would be 50 different lottery tickets, each representing a different number (1-50), at the cost $1 each, for a total cost of $50. Such a strategy would guarantee that you would have in your possession the winning number, but the math would not be in your favor. You would have spent $50 to guarantee your lottery winnings of $30. You would have lost -$20 by playing every single number possible to guarantee your win.

    3) This is where the loophole (the roll-down) feature changes the arithmetic. Take our same game, and assume a "rolldown" feature changed the payout value from $30 to $100. Now, by spending $50 to play every single combination of possible numbers, you would result in a net winning. By playing every single number (1-50) at a cost of $1 each, you would have spent $50 for a guaranteed winnings of $100. We would come out ahead $50, opposed to losing -$20.

    So this is essentially what Jerry figured out. He figured out that if he played every single combination of numbers in the lottery game, he would always end up spending less in total on losers than he would win. This was only possible because the cost of each ticket (number) and odds of winning remained the same despite the fact that the "rolldown" had increased the value of the payout.

  23. Aye homee, I was really heavy on the Cash 3 in the state of GA. Right after my 18th birthday in February 2012 I played for the first time #245 straight and won $500. It was hooked for about a decade and it became like a drug. I would play the last 3 dollars in my wallet even if my car was falling apart 😢. They got a new lotto director and I just couldn't get a win anymore. I moved on towards sport betting, i lose most times but when I do hit a win streak I multiply my money 15x . I turned 550 into 8100 last month then $5 into 230 this past week.

    I migh make a video but I worry if the laws find out then they want their cut.

  26. If you are not in the financial market space right now, you are making a huge mistake. I understand that it could be due to ignorance, but if you want to build generational wealth and cultivate financial knowledge, you must be in the market……

  30. Even if it weren't for the groups from michigan and MIT, the lottery would still lose money, on average, whenever there was a rolldown. The same maths applies whether it's a small group of people buying lots of tickets, or just many people buying a few tickets each. The only difference is whether they make up for it during the orher three weeks of the month or not, according to the number of tickets sold.

  33. It is kind of a con. Numbers could have fallen that made these people lose money. They played the risk and won. The maths between the total pool of money and the odds of numbers falling will change around. What will not change is the greed and cunningness of big corporates

  43. The funny thing is, I know a lot of smart people smarter than me and none of them play the lottery they say it’s a game for dreamers and fools. 😂

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