Inspiration from TV show: American wins lottery with experiment

TV shows usually only make the people in front of the camera rich, not those in front of the receivers.

Inspiration from TV show: American wins lottery with experiment

TV shows usually only make the people in front of the camera rich, not those in front of the receivers. In the case of a South Carolina man, however, a TV show is at least the beginning of a story that ends in a hundred thousand dollar jackpot.

The US television show "The Lottery Changed My Life" actually changed the life of a man in the US state of South Carolina, in a very unusual way. After watching successful gamblers on TV station TLC, the American started an experiment: he wants to invest $25 in lottery tickets every week for three months.

He made $500 in the first week, the man reports to the South Carolina Education Lottery. A sum that one or the other would probably be satisfied with. Or, to be more precise: 20 times the stake. For the man from South Carolina, however, one more reason to continue his experiment. After all, he financed his plan right from the start with the profit. With $500, he could even play the lottery two months longer than planned without losing a dime.

But it won't get that far anyway: Next, the disciplined soldier of fortune will play a momentous round of "Powerball". It is said to have happened under the blue corrugated roof of the Kwik-Fill gas station in Hanahan, a suburb of the coastal city of Charleston. There, opposite a laundromat and an aquarium dealer, the man typed 5 numbers between 1 and 69, as well as an additional number between 1 and 29 - the so-called Powerball.

A real Powerball skyrockets the potential win. The South Carolina man plays according to plan and seems less interested in how the game itself works. "I didn't even know how to play Powerball," he is said to later tell the lottery with a laugh.

In addition to his perseverance, the wife of the $25 speculator is also to blame for his good mood. At first he only recognizes two correct ones on his Powerball ticket from the gas station, which would be worthless without a real Powerball. But his wife takes a closer look: she discovers four correct numbers and the Powerball. Because the man spent an additional dollar on the so-called power play in addition to the two dollars for the lottery ticket, his winnings doubled. In the end, he gets paid around $100,000. This currently corresponds to a good 95,000 euros.

The lucky winner may have learned something else from the TV show "The lottery has changed my life" in addition to the persevering betting game: that it's not always worth hanging the sudden blessing of money on the big bell. The show tells how lottery winners achieve their success, but also what happens to them after they get really lucky. For example, there is a collective of street cleaners who crack a million jackpot together. But there are always lottery winners who are not happy with their unexpected wealth. Relationships with friends and family members are often destroyed.

In any case, the lottery winner from South Carolina does not want to identify himself for the time being. His name doesn't appear anywhere. Among the numerous photos of successful Powerball players on the lottery organizer's Twitter page, the man with an icon image stands out. He bought a car with the money, he can only be quoted as saying.

(This article was first published on Wednesday, June 29, 2022.)