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Title: How a Secretive Gambler Called 'The Joker' Beat the Texas Lottery

Link: https://idle.slashdot.org/story/25/04/13/1716...

"Can you help me take down the Texas lottery?" That's what a London banker-
turned-bookmaker asked "acquaintances" in 2023, reports the Wall Street
Journal. The plan was to buy "nearly every possible number in a coming
drawing" - purchasing $1 tickets for 25.8 million possible combinations,
since "The jackpot was heading to $95 million. If nobody else also picked the
winning numbers, the profit would be nearly $60 million." Marantelli flew to
the U.S. with a few trusted lieutenants. They set up shop in a defunct
dentist's office, a warehouse and two other spots in Texas. The crew worked
out a way to get official ticket-printing terminals. Trucks hauled in dozens
of them and reams of paper... [Then Texas announced no winner in an earlier
lottery, rolling its jackpot into another drawing three days later.] The
machines - manned by a disparate bunch of associates and some of their
children - screeched away nearly around the clock, spitting out 100 or more
tickets every second. Texas politicians later likened the operation to a
sweatshop. Trying to pull off the gambit required deep pockets and a knack
for staying under the radar - both hallmarks of the secretive Tasmanian
gambler who bankrolled the operation. Born Zeljko Ranogajec, he was nicknamed
"the Joker" for his ability to pull off capers at far-flung casinos and
racetracks. Adding to his mystique, he changed his name to John Wilson
several decades ago. Among some associates, though, he still goes by Zeljko,
or Z. Over the years, Ranogajec and his partners have won hundreds of
millions of dollars by applying Wall Street-style analytics to betting
opportunities around the world. Like card counters at a blackjack table, they
use data and math to hunt for situations ripe for flipping the house edge in
their favor. Then they throw piles of money at it, betting an estimated $10
billion annually. The Texas lottery play, one of their most ambitious
operations ever, paid off spectacularly with a $57.8 million jackpot win.
That, in turn, spilled their activities into public view and sparked a Texas-
size uproar about whether other lotto players - and indeed the entire state -
had been hoodwinked. Early this month, the state's lieutenant governor, Dan
Patrick, called the crew's win "the biggest theft from the people of Texas in
the history of Texas." In response to written questions addressed to
Marantelli and Ranogajec, Glenn Gelband, a New Jersey lawyer who represents
the limited partnership that claimed the Texas prize, said "all applicable
laws, rules and regulations were followed...." Lottery officials and state
lawmakers have taken steps to prevent a repeat. The article also looks at a
group of Princeton University graduates calling themselves Black Swan Capital
that's "won millions in recent years" by targetting state lottery drawings
with unusually favorable odds. "State lottery directors say they are seeing
more organized efforts to buy lottery tickets in bulk," according to the
article, "but that the groups are largely operating legally and
transparently..."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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