Professional statistician wins lottery four times

Tue, Aug 09, 2011 | The Korea Herald/Asia News Network
By Kang Yoon-seung
A woman from Texas has reportedly won the lottery four times, prompting interest towards the secret of the unbelievable luck.

Joan R. Gither, 63, has won four fortunes worth millions of dollars in the span of 15 years.

First she won US$5.4 million (S$6.5 million) in 1993, and 10 years later US$2 million. Then, another two years later she claimed US$3 million, and finally a US$10 million jackpot in 2008. Three of the wins were purchased at the same store in Texas.

Mathematically, such an outcome is likely to happen about once every quadrillion years, Harper's Magazine reported. Concerning the secret of Gither's luck, the key may be that she was a math professor with Ph.D in statistics from Stanford.

Nathanial Rich, a Harper's reporter, suggested that she may have figured out the algorithm of allocation of winning tickets, including the shipping schedule of lottery slips.

Meanwhile, Harper's reported that the Texas Lottery Commission said they do not suspect foul play.

- Ref:asia one new  -Posted using BlogPress from my 4GiPhone