The article previously said “After the company’s chief executive received the video as an update”… “I was more excited when we printed the last ticket,” he says. The numbers drawn were beyond his control.

His team had bought more than 25 million tickets, which now filled the cardboard boxes stacked high against the hotel room wall. In a crowded hotel room not far from Austin, Bernard Marantelli and his team watched a live-stream of the Texas lottery draw. Bernard Marantelli has for the past few decades outsmarted many in the wagering industry, including US authorities after he won a $95 million lottery jackpot. The ASX-listed wagering group will upgrade its betting terminals and broadcast displays across the Laundy Hotels portfolio, but lock its rival out. Virtual Gaming Worlds was one of the early beneficiaries of a US legislative loophole in states where gambling is otherwise banned. The British bookmaker behind Ladbrokes and Neds allegedly allowed more than a dozen high-risk customers to funnel money through its accounts despite the risks.

Sceptical of the Texas Lottery Commission at the best of times, Nettles was unconvinced by talk of a lottery fever. Draw after draw, week after week, the jackpot rolled over, unclaimed. No one had won the Texas state lottery in a long time. The state’s lieutenant-governor has called the lottery strike “the biggest theft from the people of Texas in the history of Texas”. “I think Texas is the only time we’ve bought almost every ticket,” Marantelli says.

Ranogajec ordered his troops to buy as many tickets as they could after receiving a tip from some smaller-time gamblers. About 28 million tickets were sold, roughly 10 times the normal volume. The chief executive who led the company since 2019 will step down upon the completion of a new anti-money-laundering program.

• The company’s biggest revenue generator is its in-venue poker business, which attracted nearly a million Australians via about 25,000 tournaments last year.
• The company also overstated its revenue by $US52 million.
• Lawyers for the syndicate have moved to have the case dismissed.
• “He’s a smooth bastard,” says Winton Taylor, a Queenslander who came to invest money with him.

Dine. Play. Stay. Repeat.

Documents show executives at the gaming machines giant were paid $15 million by its billionaire founder shortly after he offloaded his 53 per cent stake. Court documents reveal details of the allegations against Perth gaming billionaire Laurence Escalante, who’s facing several assault and drug charges The co-founder of America’s biggest predictions market built a platform that lets people bet on anything. Crown says the latest reduction in jobs is designed to set the business up for the future and comes as the group faces industrial action in Victoria.

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“We’re a group of mathematicians who look for opportunities to make money.” To help put the Texas play in motion, he turned to some fellow Australians. The $US95 million ($141 million) jackpot was theirs to lose. For a player with a single $1 ticket tucked in their wallet or stuck to the fridge, the chance of winning the top prize was 25.8 million to one. It was just after 10pm on a Saturday, April 22, 2023, and the room was so packed that people could barely move, Marantelli remembers. Just show your Crown Rewards Card when you pay or play and you can start earning points, which you can redeem for Crown experiences like dining, gaming, hotels stays and much more. And dive into world-class gaming and entertainment experiences.

“I was involved in the funding of the Texas lottery play,” he says. Then there was the NSW lottery win in the early 90s. “Mate, he’s big time,” one club patron told the Herald at the time. The club, which earned a commission, had ordered staff to place bets for Ranogajec on three Keno machines set up in the high-rollers’ suite. After six days’ work, he took home a $7.5 million jackpot.

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In 1994, Ranogajec cashed cheques worth millions to spend on Keno, the pub lottery game, at the North Ryde RSL in Sydney. They moved into other forms of gambling, using more sophisticated mathematics combined with a brute-force approach. Both were good at maths and Ranogajec was already into gambling. Walsh revealed at an investment conference in 2022 that their syndicate, led by Ranogajec, placed about $10 billion in bets each year. The syndicate could still stand a good chance of losing most of that $4 million. He threw a party for some of the store owners at a sports bar, even though he failed to win the draw.

The pair has overlapping gambling interests and serve as directors of the same data analysis company, which employs statisticians to work on horse races and sports matches around the world. Over two weeks, they bought Quick Pick tickets from convenience stores, carrying up to $US20,000 cash in cloth bags. The commission announced “players are turning out in droves to have the exclusive chance at winning the largest jackpot on the continent”.

Using another failing industry as a justification for not adequately protecting Australians from gambling harm is a cop out, an opportunity fluffed.

Brier says Repcenko asked him for some help organising a bulk ticket purchase in Indiana. Brier was suing Texas-based courier Lottery.com for allegedly failing to pay $US15 million in a business acquisition. “He seemed charming, you know, looked clean cut,” says John Brier, an American businessman who spoke with him over a series of video calls in 2023. He had a new girlfriend – another model, this time from Lithuania – and a new name, Repcenko. After his release from prison, he was involved in a business deal with King of the Cross John Ibrahim. “He’s a smooth bastard,” says Winton Taylor, a Queenslander who came to online casino invest money with him.

It turned out Texas wasn’t Marantelli’s first lottery play. They collected the prize via Rook TX, a company set up in Delaware where information about company directors and owners is kept secret. “Because I knew the lottery I knew what was going on and they could have stopped it.” A few days later, the Lottery Commission said most of the sales were to “purchasing groups”. She posted on her website that the jackpot would be won that Saturday night.