Jerry and Marge Selbee are high school sweethearts who have been married for more than forty years and have raised four children together. The couple also recently sold the convenience store that they have owned for years after they "cracked the code" of a state-run lottery and netted more than $20 million in winnings.
, Jerry, who graduated from college with a degree in mathematics, says he only used basic arithmetic to beat the odds in a lottery game called Windfall; a game that used a "rolldown" feature where the jackpot would fall if nobody won it after the first week.
When the jackpot would rolldown it would increase the prize value of the lower tiers who only matched five or four of the lucky numbers. Mr Selbee quickly realised that if he bought plenty of tickets for a rolldown draw he could easily start making a profit.
He told news reporters that "it only took three minutes" before he realised that he had cracked the code. The first time he put his plan into action he spent $1000 on tickets and won back $6300, the second time he won back $8000.
Eventually the couple upped their game and were playing $600 000 worth of tickets in a single draw, sometimes taking up to 10 hours to sort through the tickets they had bought. Soon after the lottery was shut down and an investigation was launched but ultimately found that the Selbees had not broken any laws.
Mr Selbee also kept all of the physical losing tickets which totalled nearly $18 million. The couple has since used their $8 million in profits to renovate their home and pay for the education of their children and grandchildren. Hollywood producers have bought the film rights to Selbee's story.
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