American man Jerry Selbee reveals how he cracked the lotto code and won $27 million

We all imagine winning the lotto … now imagine winning over and over and over and knowing that you’ll win!

Well, for US retiree Jerry Selbee and his wife Marge, that’s exactly what they did.

After discovering a new lotto draw, Jerry was able to use what he calls "simple math" to figure out how he could crack the code and win large. He and his wife eventually won $27 million with his method.

Jerry caught up with Jono and Ben to share more about his incredible story - which has now even been turned into a movie starring Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston called Jerry and Marge Go Large.

"The way it worked, the jackpot was guaranteed to start at $2 million and if nobody won, it continued to build until it hit 5 million. At that point, if no one won all the $5 million rolled down into the smaller tier prizes, like the three number winners, the four number winners and the five number winners,” Jerry told Jono and Ben.

Well, the loophole was, it was simple math,” Jerry continued. “I looked at the brochure and the brochure listed the odds of getting a three-number winner at one in 56 and two-thirds.

“The odds of getting a four-number winner was one in 1032. So I just looked at that and I said to myself, well, if I played $1,100, I would mathematically, I would get one, four number winner and 18 three number winners. Well, the four-number winner was projected to be worth a thousand dollars when the windfall occurred.

"And the three number winners [were] projected to be worth $50 when the windfall occurred. And so I just added those together and that was a $1,900 return on a $1,100 bet.”

Jerry and Marge were so good at playing the lotto this way, that the game eventually shut down in their home state and so they ended up having to drive miles to play in the next state over. 

And while the operation does appear a little shady at first, Jerry confirmed that he did everything above board.

"[It was] absolutely legal, legal," the now 83-year-old said, "I created, I created a paper trail. I had. Five federal audits and four states of Massachusetts audits and two Michigan audits and never had a problem."

So after all this, what does Jerry think about being portrayed on screen?

Well, he says Brian Cranston is a "very nice person” and gives the movie five stars.

“We originally had a little apprehension, but the way they presented it, it's a good, wholesome story.”

Listen to Jerry’s full interview with Jono and Ben - including what he ended up doing with the $27 million - above.