A fortune cookie company once guessed the lottery numbers correctly in 2005. Across six different states in the US, 110 lottery winners used the numbers they received from messages in fortune cookies. An average of four winners were expected for the Powerball drawing, which led the lottery organizers to open an investigation. It was suspected that a computer error or scam was the reason behind the high number of lottery prize winners, who received prizes from $100,000 US Dollars (USD) to $500,000 USD. However, the investigation found that the winners all coincidentally had fortune cookies from the same New York based fortune cookie company. The Powerball lottery organizers ended up paying an additional $19 million USD in unanticipated prizes.
More about the lottery:
- A computer scientist calculated that lottery jackpots of $420 million USD yield the highest likelihood of winning, but still only brings a return on investment of $0.69 USD for every $1 USD spent.
- The average lottery winner exhausts their prize winnings within five years.
- Statistically, a person is 33 times more likely to die after being attacked by bees than he or she is to win the lottery.