In the USA and perhaps other countries too, they name the winner and even publish their pictures, but here it’s the typically ambiguous, nameless “40-year-old food vendor in Petaling Jaya” who won the devilishly difficult Sports Toto’s Mega TOTO 6/52, and beating the previous winnings record of RM19.3 million.

Here, “lucky” is not strong enough a word to describe this, since even the odds of winning the 6/49 is 1 in 13,983,816; of which some say:
- getting struck by lightning is easier done;
- if you buy a ticket for 2 draws every week, you’d win the jackpot in 140,000 years.

I don’t even want to analyse the 6/52′s odds. I can’t resist: it’s 1 in 20,358,520. Goodness, probably it’s more likely that I be struck by lightning every day for the rest of my life than winning this.

The lucky guy’s karma is in severe imbalance, I think he needs to read up on Angela Kelly, the post office staff in the UK who won more than RM100 million in August 2007 but ended up miserable.

The numbers: 17, 19, 20, 32, 39, 41 in draw 3075/08, date 22nd October 2008

And the lucky guy and his spouse’s unexpected reaction summed it up: instead of the conventional reactions like unbridled delirium, they slapped each other instead, ostensibly to make sure they’re not in dreamland.

The feeling could be more adrenalin-filled than a bungee jump or even base jumping, I mean what would your reaction be if you were watching the results and it’s exactly the same as the numbers you’re holding?

Apparently he’d been trying for about 10 years and spent RM50 each time. Assuming he has never missed a draw, that would mean he has spent around RM78,000 before his big win.

And seems that the lucky guy’s good at spotting “the trend of previous winning numbers.” I’ve tried this before and gave up because well, they are (seemingly) random numbers, I couldn’t see any trend at all.

Having said all the above, even 6/52 is relatively easy and RM20 million is peanuts compared to lotteries in other countries. For example, the SuperEnalotto of Italy is a mind-boggling 6/90, meaning a probability of 1 in 622 million – I think one would have to go through several Big Bangs to even think of winning this. But even its biggest win of USD128 million (itself an incredible amount) is dwarfed by the USA’s Mega Millions: get this: USD390 million [shared by 2 person though] – who needs instant millionaires when you can be an instant BILLIONAIRE (in RM of course)?

OK back to earth: what did the news do to you, did it make you even more determined to strike it rich via gambling?

…and would it help all the winners in managing all the money if they have, or used to have jobs in banking?

Source
The Star, 31 October 2008
Malaysiakini, 31 October 2008
New Straits Times, 31 October 2008

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