They found the “hack” of the lottery and became millionaires as retirees: who are Jerry and Marge Selbee

The story of Jerry and Marge Selbee represents the dream of many. Thanks to the mathematics, or more precisely arithmetic, They discovered a method to beat the “Windfall” lotterywhich has a style where if the biggest prize is not drawn, the prize is distributed among those with the fewest guesses.

In this way, the man discovered that by purchasing a certain amount of tickets, investing the sum of 1,100 dollars, he would be almost guaranteed the possibility of obtaining a 4-number prize, which returned him 1,900 dollars in his first investment. He began to repeat this method, increasing the sum of money, and it continued to work.

From retirees to millionaires: how Jerry Selbee and his wife Marge made their fortune

In the United States, people spend approximately $80 billion a year on the lottery. Which gives an average of 250 dollars per person. This gave another idea to Jerry Selbee, who by now had told his wife what he was doing. Taking investments from other people to increase the amount of money invested and the profit.

In this way, they created their own company, GS Investment Strategies LLC, of which they sold shares to continue investing in their strategy and thus managed to greatly increase profits. They ranged from farmers to lawyers who invested large sums of money, and one of the best prizes obtained was $853,000.

Although the strategic scheme brought great benefits, it also required a lot of time and money. In addition, everything became complicated when the Michigan lottery, which was the only one of this style in the area, closed. However, there was another one in Massachusetts, thousands of kilometers away, but this did not matter to the new businessmen of chance, who for 6 years crossed the 6 US states to carry out these transactions.

They spent 10 days in a hotel sorting tickets by hand in 10-hour daysand they considered it entertaining. And even more so considering that it brought great benefits for them, their family and friends.

But in 2012 the adventure ended, after having bought 18 million lottery tickets, an investigation by the newspaper “The Boston Globe” discovered that the Massachusetts lottery had an exaggerated number of winners and that in turn the Selbees were not alone, A group of students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) carried out the same strategy.

The authorities investigated what was happening and decided to end this style of raffles that left the possibility of carrying out these strategies.

From real life to the big screen

The couple that generated a great impact throughout the country by winning 26 million dollars between 2003 and 2012became sought after by Hollywood to tell its story through fiction, and in 2022 “Jerry & Marge Go Large” was released, with Bryan Cranston and Annete Benning as protagonists, and director David Frenkel, known for films such as ” “The Devil Wears Prada.”

Although the film takes its creative license, it seeks to portray the simplicity of the Selbee and their coldness so as not to lose their minds in the face of their exponential profits. The film was produced by Paramount.