There comes a point when luck eventually turns into skill, and one woman with a math PhD might just have reached that by winning the lottery four separate times, banking over $20 million in the process.
Statisticians believe that you have a greater chance of being struck by lightening than winning the lottery — and only very rarely do you hear about someone being unfortunate enough to have that happen to them twice.
It's almost by design that it's incredibly difficult to win something as financially beneficial as the lottery, and on top of that it's arguably impossible to 'game the system' yourself, leaving you to rely entirely on luck to hit the jackpot.
However, it appears that's not always the case if you know what you're doing, as one woman appeared to figure out by somehow managing to score big on four lotteries over the course of 17 years.
Advert
As reported by the Daily Mail, Joan Ginther is often referred to as 'America's luckiest woman', having picked up a jaw-dropping $20.4 million in winnings between 1993 and 2010, shattering all preconceived notions about the chances of winning the lottery.
Ginther has a maths PhD from Stanford University and was formerly a stats professor before she passed away aged 77 in 2024, and many believe that her advanced knowledge of numbers allowed her to crack the algorithm and work out how to win.
She managed to first score big with a $5.4 million lottery draw in 1993, following up 13 years later by winning $2 million in a Holiday Millionaire scratch-off. Joan's third win was just two years after, earning $3 million from a Millions and Millions ticket, and then her final jackpot was her largest, netting $10 million from a scratch-off ticket worth 'just' $50.
Expert statistician Alan Salzberg offered an intriguing interpretation of her success though, putting it partly down to her aptitude with numbers with the rest chalked up to another perhaps unexpected factor.
Speaking to the Mail, Salzberg indicated: "The math of lotteries isn't hard. I don't think you need a PhD. I doubt it was the hand of God here, and I doubt she spent a tiny amount of money to get these winnings.
"It's somewhere in between. She probably figured out a little bit and she also probably spent a lot of money to win these."
She likely more than made up for her input cost with the returns though, although that didn't appear to change her life significantly as she moved back to Texas and gave generously to those around her.