
The Man Who Got No Whammies - ryan_j_naughton
http://priceonomics.com/the-man-who-got-no-whammies/
======
MaxScheiber
The Michael Larson story is absolutely fascinating. The Game Show Network
produced a made-for-TV documentary about this called _Big Bucks: The Press
Your Luck Scandal_ that I highly recommend watching. If I remember correctly,
they brought in Long and Litras to play a re-created Press Your Luck game, who
were both successfully taught how to time the board the way that Larson did.
If one knew the board as well as Larson did, it'd be easier to beat than any
arcade timing game.

If you're interested in game show cheating scandals, I also highly recommend
_Major Fraud_ , a documentary about a cheater on Who Wants To Be A
Millionaire. The summary of that one is an audience signal via coughing.

~~~
zackcrockett
"Major Fraud" is an awesome doc.

Charles Ingram, a former British Army major, won £1,000,000 after his wife
(planted in the audience) coughed to signify each correct answer. Unlike
Larson, his winnings were rescinded.

~~~
MBCook
Of course he cheated, where as Larson simply took advantage of the system but
played entirely within the rules.

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kbenson
> Under the name “Pleasure Time Incorporated,” Larson sold shares in a non-
> existent American-Indian Lottery, and, by the mid-1990s, he’d managed to
> cheat 20,000 investors out of $3 million. With the SEC, IRS, and FBI hot on
> his tail, he fled Ohio and disappeared into the void. > > When investigators
> finally tracked Larson to Apopka, Florida in 1999, he’d succumbed to throat
> cancer.

...

> “Winning that game show was the start of [Michael’s] downfall,” Larson’s
> brother, James, would later say. “It made him think he could trick anybody,
> and do just about anything he pleased.”

Well, yeah. Why wouldn't he think that. He got away with everything until he
was already on his way out the door. I don't agree with his methods, but
there's something to be admired in the sheer audaciousness of how he lived his
life.

It's obvious this thought is shared by many, there are plenty of movies about
heists and con-men where they are portrayed as heroes (and the movies go over
very well) as evidence of this.

~~~
jaxytee
In show's introduction, the host said "Hopefully you don't overdose on money
Michael" after Michael joked about eating too much Ice cream.

What an omen.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h07eO0SKtUI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h07eO0SKtUI)

------
joezydeco
I remember seeing the original shows when I was a kid and even I saw the
pattern he was exploiting. And I'm sure I wasn't the only one.

It's boggling that everyone else in the studio didn't see this. Or maybe they
did and couldn't do a thing about it until they had a way to reprogram the
system. Game shows tend to tape multiple episodes per day.

~~~
xlm1717
Maybe they couldn't convince higher-ups at CBS to upgrade the system until
someone came in and fleeced them for $90K after taxes.

~~~
Moeancurly
Wouldn't CBS have been fleeced for $110K regardless of taxes? Or is there some
sort of game-show accounting number-fudging that reduces their monetary
obligation?

------
mitchtbaum
NPR's This American Life has a good episode which includes Michael Larson's
story as one of its angles: Million Dollar Idea
[http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-
archives/episode/412/m...](http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-
archives/episode/412/million-dollar-idea)

Funny.. I could have sworn that I got a link to it from HN... Oh yea, I found
it right after listening to this really good, yet embellished story about
Shenzhen workers ("it's some kind of magic, [this tablet computer I put
together]"): Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory
[http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-
archives/episode/454/m...](http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-
archives/episode/454/mr-daisey-and-the-apple-factory) [insert HN link here
after meal]

~~~
jdietrich
The retraction episode is far better than _Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory_.
It shows the journalistic values of Ira Glass and NPR in general. The
interview with Mike Daisey asking him to account for his fabrication is one of
the strangest, most uncomfortable things I've ever heard on the radio.

[http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-
archives/episode/460/r...](http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-
archives/episode/460/retraction)

