WMU Grad Cracks The Michigan Lottery Code

After retiring, this couple has made millions from the Michigan State Lottery

Jerry and Marge Selbee where high school sweethearts. They married, raised 6 children and ran the corner store in Evart Michigan. It was a random morning after retirement that Jerry walked over to his old store and saw a brochure for a new lottery game called 'Winfall'. After reading the rules to the game, Jerry who claims to "have a head for math" (Jerry has his bachelor's degree in math from Western Michigan University), realized that the lottery game had a feature called a 'Rolldown'. CBS detailed what a "Rolldown" is...

That feature was called a "Rolldown", and the lottery announced when it was coming. Unlike the Mega Millions games you've probably heard of where the jackpot keeps building until someone hits all six numbers and wins the big prize, in Winfall, if the jackpot reached $5 million, and no one matched all six numbers, all the money 'rolled down'  to the lower-tier prize winners, dramatically boosting the payouts of those who matched five, four or three numbers.

Jerry ran the numbers and realized that he could not loose at this game...

Here's what I said. I said if I played $1,100 mathematically I'd have one 4-number winner, that's 1,000 bucks.  I divided 1,100 by six instead of 57 because I did a mental quick dirty and I come up with 18. So I knew I'd have either 18 or 19 3-number winners and that's 50 bucks each. At 18 I got $1,000 for a 4-number winner, and I got 18 3-number winners worth $50 each, so that's 900 bucks. So I got $1,100 invested and I've got a $1,900 return.

Jerry does have amazing math skills, in fact, most people could not figure that out but Jerry did in less then 10 minutes. In fact, he jumped right in to action and bought $3,600 in 'Winfall' tickets and won $6,300. Next time he bet $8,000 and nearly doubled it. It was at that point that Jerry and his wife Marge started playing for hundreds of thousands of dollars, and wining! Jerry set up a corporation, G.S. Investment Strategies and allowed friends and family to take part in his good fortune. The winning streak lasted until 2005 when the Michigan lotto shut down the game 'Winfall' due to lack of ticket sales.

Soon after Jerry discovered that Massachusetts had a game called 'Cash Winfall'. So  Jerry and his investors started playing that game until it's demise 2011 for the same reasons as Michigan. Jerry and his wife have yet to find another lottery game with a rolldown, but don't feel too bad for them.

In the end the group G.S. Investment Strategies profited $26 million and Jerry and Marge made $8 million (before taxes)

Not a bad payday for a retired couple!

Check out the 60 min. overtime: Jerry & Marge Bet Big. Now Hollywood is Calling