How to Win the Lottery is based on a factual incident that took place in 2012 and sent shockwaves throughout Mexico and the world. This Netflix series dramatizes a real-life lottery fraud that took place on January 22, 2012. In the series, certain Mexican National Lottery employees collaborated with Just Marketing, a broadcasting business, to rig the Melate lottery draw.These government personnel have complete access to the lottery system and broadcasting facilities, giving them insider knowledge on how to carry out one of the most daring lottery heists ever. The actual scammers produced a pre-recorded video of the drawing and seamlessly inserted it into the live broadcast. Thus, it allowed them to know the winning numbers beforehand and purchase tickets with those very numbers.The conspiracy involved around seven people, and they managed to pilfer around 160 million pesos, which was approximately $8 million at that time. The fraud was only discovered when a diligent auditor named Annie Castillo identified odd patterns in the winning tickets and reported them to the authorities.Find out more about the real story behind it!How to Win the Lottery: The real story behind the scamScene from How to Win the Lottery | Image via NetflixThe 2012 real lottery scam was a carefully executed plot involving several Pronósticos personnel and the staff of Just Marketing, a company hired by Mexico's National Lottery to create the lottery broadcast. They realized they could pre-tape the drawing and stitch it into the live broadcast so they could know the winning numbers in advance. The conspirators filmed the actual drawing at 5 PM on January 22, 2012, which was five hours before the 10 PM appointed live broadcast. Once they were aware of the winning numbers, they told their relatives to purchase lottery tickets with comparable numbers. View this post on Instagram Instagram PostThe strategy failed because of greed and careless decisions, even though everyone had access to insider knowledge and resources. When they immediately started cashing in their winning tickets, instead of waiting patiently, they created a pattern of winning that immediately caught the attention of Annie Castillo, the Technical and Legal Coordinator of Pronósticos.Like in How to Win the Lottery, she discovered that all of the winners were relatives of Just Marketing and Pronósticos employees. The fact that several winners cashed in their tickets in Zacatecas aroused immediate concerns about insider information.The investigation and aftermathHow to Win the Lottery | Image via NetflixIn How to Win the Lottery, the investigation and finding of the fraud by Castillo led the Attorney General's Office to start a full investigation in March 2012. Experts analyzed the broadcast video for technical glitches and lag, showing them where the pre-recorded video had been spliced into the live broadcast.Investigators traced the tickets and identified the perpetrators by connecting them with people who worked for the lottery. Prosecutors froze bank accounts and recovered most of the money stolen, although the investigation process was slow. Ultimately, 12 people were charged in connection with the fraud, but the legal system treated it as a minor offense.José Luis Jiménez, who was considered the mastermind of the real scheme, died in 2023 without ever facing trial or serious charges. Other participants, including deputy directors and employees who participated directly in it, only spent brief periods in jail after their arrests.This scandal led the Mexican government to enhance future lottery drawing security with more witnesses, QR codes on tickets, automated sales closing times before drawings, and unbroken video recordings of the drawing spaces. Despite all these improvements, what happens in real life is much less dramatic than what happens in How to Win the Lottery. The characters are being imprisoned multiple times and fighting endless legal battles.Follow Soap Central for more updates!