Beat the Lotto | movie | 2025 | Official Trailer - video Dailymotion

When downtrodden 1980s Ireland inaugurated a National Lottery, the people began to dream. For Stefan, it was an obsessio | dG1fTDk4Z2haQkw0WEE

Transcript

00:00The story of how an Irish syndicate changed the way national lotteries operate across the world

00:04is to receive its film premiere at the Dublin Film Festival next week.

00:08Directed by Ross Whittaker, Beat the Lotto documents the true story that captivated

00:12Ireland in 1992 when a syndicate helmed by mathematician Stefan Klintsevich attempted

00:18to cover close to two million combinations and guarantee a rollover lotto jackpot win.

00:23Wexford man Paddy Keogh was part of that syndicate and worked closely with Stefan

00:28on devising a strategy to beat the lotto. Having fronted 130,000 pounds of his own cash,

00:33Paddy relied on Stefan's mathematical skills to overcome the system.

00:37Stefan was the brains behind it. It took him three months to write out all the combinations.

00:42If you wanted to do it now you could just press a button, Paddy said.

00:46There were only 36 numbers at the time and anybody who had one million pounds would be able to cover

00:51the numbers. We worked out that if you covered all the numbers you'd get back approximately

00:56730,000 euro. But to cover all the numbers it would cost 950,000 euro, Paddy said.

01:03They waited until the lottery went without a winner for a few weeks to maximize the prize money.

01:08Their activities led to discussions in the Dáil Éireann and international headlines.

01:12The national lottery found out about it and they closed down machines,

01:16threatening shop owners that if they took any dockets from people, their license would be suspended,

01:21Paddy said. They tried to stop their syndicate. But when the numbers were drawn, Paddy and Co were still

01:28in the draw and still expecting a major windfall. Despite their misgivings, the syndicate did still

01:35make a profit around 20%. Paddy said they won several things. There was a competition in the evening

01:42Herald for a two-bed apartment and we won that, he said. He also said they won a three-bed duplex

01:49and there was one for an Opel car in the Independent.