A group of Ivy League grads put their minds and degrees to good use.
At least four Princeton University graduates found 66 winning lottery tickets in Indiana, Missouri, Washington and the District of Columbia according to The Indianapolis Star. The total winnings of those 66 tickets were over $6 million.
Manuel Montori IV was the mastermind behind the operation. Montori cashed in 61 winning scratch-offs in just one day in September, the height of an astounding 18-month winning streak.
How did they do it?
The group would buy entire books of scratch off tickets from dozens of convenience stores and gas stations. One of those scratch-off tickets in Missouri offered up a major win Montori scratched off a $5 million top prize winner!
The groups insane success did raise eyebrows, however, the lottery commission states that they have not found any foul play or that the group has done anything illegal during their ‘operation’.
“They’re either the luckiest people in the world or they found a way to beat the system,” Philip Stark, Professor of Statistics at Cal Berkeley, told Good Morning America.
It’s worth mentioning just how much the group has invested in the tickets. One store manager told ABC News that one woman in the group would text her asking how many books of scratch-off tickets she had before coming to the store and buying them all. An ABC News estimate shows the group could have spent more than $2 million total just buying tickets.
The lottery buying group is linked to Black Swan Capital, LLC, a company found by Montori.
Although $2 million seems like a massive chunk of change — it’s rather a smart investment as the group is able to write off their gambling losses on their taxes as an expense of doing business through purchasing tickets.