Sure-Fire Way To Win Lottery

This happened in 1992, but it's new to me: Group invests $5 Million to Hedge Bets in Lottery.

It was a pick-6 lottery, worth $27 million. Each ticket cost $1.00.

In the Virginia game, there are 7,059,052 possible combinations of numbers. So someone who buys one ticket has odds of 1 in slightly more than 7 million. Having more tickets increases the odds of winning, so that 1 million tickets have odds of 1 in 7.

Buy all the tickets, and you can't lose, right?

An investment group in Australia did just that. Only, logistically, they couldn't accomplish buying 7+ million tickets. They could buy only about 5 million before the deadline. But they still won. Better yet, no on else guessed 8, 11, 13, 15, 19 and 20 -- so they didn't have to share they $27 million.

There was some controversy, of course: Group's Lottery Payout Is Postponed in Virginia.

Lottery officials in Virginia this week adopted measures aimed at discouraging future block purchases. International Lotto Fund used Pacific Financial Resources of Melbourne to carry out the purchase, and Robert Hans Roos of that company was with Mr. Franck today when he presented the winning ticket.

"This will not happen again," Mr. Thorson said.