Seven-Time Lottery Winner Richard Lustig: Lucky Man or Conman?

Anybody who calls is an avid lottery enthusiast likely knows who Richard Lustig is. His name became synonymous with winning the lottery, and his fame preceded him wherever he went. In this article, we will look at who Richard Lustig is and what made him rise to prominence in the lottery scene.

Who Is Richard Lustig?

There is hardly anything known about Richard before he win the lottery an astounding seven times and rose to fame shortly after. The only known facts are that he was a born and bred American man who had a genuine love for playing in the lottery. This love led him to play continuously throughout his lifetime.

On July 30, 2018, Richard sadly passed away at the age of 67, leaving his loving wife of over 30 years and their two children. There is no mention of the cause of death.

Richard’s Claim to Fame

As mentioned above, Richard’s claim to fame was the fact that he won the lottery not just once or twice, but a ridiculous seven times! He achieved this-by his own admission-by following his own unique formula for playing in the lottery that he had developed. This formula (or strategy) seemed to work for him considering the number of wins he accumulated.

While it is astounding that he managed to win the lottery so many times, it is essential to note that not all of those wins were the jackpot amount. In fact, only one of those seven wins was a jackpot. Two of the seven wins were for holidays, not cash amounts, and of the seven wins, three of them were from scratchers, not lottery draws.

During his winning streak, which ranged from 1993 up till 2010, Richard’s combined winnings totalled just over one million dollars-$1,047,060.58 to be exact-a pretty low amount considering he had won the lottery seven times. This is certainly lower than Rolf Rhodes, who won $1 million on two separate occasions from two different scratch and win tickets only 18 months apart!

Below is a summary of Richard’s wins as well as when they occurred:

What Was Richard’s Strategy?

While many people claim that it is pointless to use a strategy when playing the lottery because it does not increase your chances of winning, Richard clearly stated that he won as many times as he did precisely due to a strategy that he himself had devised.

There are three main points that the strategy he uses boil down to:

• Avoid Quick-Picks: Richard was adamant that you should never play a quick-pick ticket. He firmly believed that you should always choose your own numbers when playing in the lottery.
• Repeat, Repeat, Repeat: The next part of Richard’s strategy was to always play the same numbers-no matter how many times you had to play them-until they won you something. However, as soon as a combination of numbers wins you anything, immediately stop playing them and never play them again.
• Reinvest: Richard always recommended placing winnings back into the lottery by using your winnings to purchase more tickets. His “magic” recommendation was 33% of your winnings.

How Richard came to be using this formula is anybody’s guess. At a glance, it does seem slightly illogical. For one, a large number of jackpot winners win from purchasing a quick-pick ticket-something that Richard insists should be avoided at all costs. Also, it becomes clear how Richard won the lottery seven times, considering he reinvested his winnings back into more tickets. What that most probably means is that Richard spent a small fortune on lottery tickets!

Richard Lustig’s Books

After his success at winning multiple lotteries, Richard decided to publish a 40-page booklet titled Learn How to Increase Your Chances of Winning the Lottery. The book cost around $40 per copy and immediately skyrocketed to fame-quickly claiming the title of third best-selling book on Amazon. There are very few lottery books that have achieved that level of success.

However, the book had incredibly mixed reviews with some people stating that it helped them understand the lottery and make it easier to win, while others criticized the book as a collection of illogical tips and pointless advice that could easily be gleaned from using common sense.

A few years later, another book-or more specifically, an e-book-was released under the pen name of Richard Lustig, this time called Lotto Dominator. This book would, later on, grow into international infamy as one of the biggest ‘scam’ books regarding the lottery available. The book caused significant waves across the world as being entirely useless (despite its $300 price tag) and was soon removed from almost all e-commerce websites.  

While this book circulated quickly, it was never confirmed that Richard penned it. During the entire time the book was in the spotlight, Richard never once confirmed that he had authored it. It also never appeared on Richard’s official record, and there is no record of him ever even speaking about it. This has led many to believe that the book was actually falsely released under his name by scammers hoping to cash in on his fame.

The Final Say

Like 14-time winner Stefan Mandel, Richard Lustig most definitely deserved his fame. Not many people can say that they have even won the lottery once-let alone seven individual times. However, we’re not so sure that he managed to achieve this due to his formula or by just being an incredibly lucky person.

The problem comes in when drilling down into Richard’s strategy and seeing that most of the stuff that he speaks about is more along the lines of common sense and logical thinking than anything else. Moreover, while he does offer a few helpful tips, other tips appear illogical and cannot be adequately rationalized. If you're considering spending $300-or even $40-on one of his official or alleged books, then we highly recommend you read our article on lottery scams first.

Richard was undoubtedly fun to listen to when he ranted about the lottery, but when all is said and done, there is one burning question that cannot be answered that casts doubt over all of the advice that he touted. If his strategy worked so well, why did he not win more than seven times, and why was the total value so low? Maybe if we get an answer to that, we may be more inclined to believe his teachings, but until then we think it’s best to leave it to chance and to let him rest peacefully. Whether he was a lottery genius, a marketing genius or perhaps something closer to a conman like Howard Walmsley we'll let you decide.