Seems kind of silly that they hyped it up as some kind of mathematical savant genius story, when it seems like they just took a simple lottery system (x numbers give y combinations, which sell for $1 per combination, for a total payout of >$3y) where the logistics operation was the more impressive aspect.
From the linked article [1](Romanian language) it sounds like he had claimed to have a special mathematical method to convince his early investors in Romania but it was entirely made up. He was basically scamming them and had no idea if they would actually win.
> Meanwhile, Mandel paid himself ... $1.7m, and ... $14m. After overhead fees ($5.5m for the tickets, and $500k in expenses), he was left with a princely sum.
> Records show that he funneled this cash into the Pacific Basin Fund, a Hong Kong-based account managed by his brother-in-law. “What we calculated to be the reality has changed,” he wrote in a 1994 letter to investors. “It may not seem such a hot investment now.” After that, his investor updates went cold.
"Reading the works of Fibonacci" sounds like the sort of narrative garnish that would charm a journalist with little knowledge of math -- but would sound contrived to anyone who's take a stat class or two.
Given how well-known the Fibonacci sequence is today, poring through Liber Abaci (1202) in search of secret insights is teetering on the edge of madness.
Exactly.. from the main header graphic I thought this guy was going to set up some kind of mathematical physics model of a sphere with a lot of balls in it and be able to predict the outcome.
