Winning once at the lottery is already a very rare event.
Doing it four times is something that seems to challenge every chance.
Yet that's exactly what happened to Joan Ginther.
Between 1993 and 2010, this woman, a graduate and a doctorate in statistics from Stanford University, won four major Texas Lottery awards, totaling around $20 million.
The most surprising aspect is that three of those winnings arrived thanks to the "free and winning" tickets, feeding a debate that continues today.
How was that possible?
Was it just a fortune out of the ordinary?
Or was there a particularly sophisticated mathematical analysis behind those winnings?
There have been many theories over the years.
Some have speculated that Joan had studied the likelihood of different games, identifying those with statistically most favorable conditions.
Others simply spoke of an extraordinary coincidence.
One thing, though, remains certain.
The authorities of the Texas Lottery verified all its winnings and did not show evidence of fraud, manipulation or access to confidential information.
Everything was perfectly regular.
Still today no one was able to prove what Joan Ginther's true "secret" was.
Maybe it was a smart strategy.
Maybe an unrepeatable fortune.
Or maybe both.
His case continues to be one of the most amazing in the history of lottery and remembers that, sometimes, reality may seem even more unlikely than fantasy.
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