--- title: This Statistics Professor Won the Lottery, Beating the Odds description: Fairfield University's Nicholas Kapoor picked up a $100,000 prize—just after teaching his students about lottery chances. canonical: https://time.com/4573590/professor-wins-lottery/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-16T20:16:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:38:44.745Z og:title: This Statistics Professor Won the Lottery, Beating the Odds og:description: He picked up a $100,000 prize after teaching his students about the lottery. og:url: https://time.com/4573590/professor-wins-lottery/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Statistics Professor Won the Lottery, Beating the Odds twitter:description: He picked up a $100,000 prize after teaching his students about the lottery. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # A Lottery-Winning Statistics Professor Tried to Teach His Students How He Beat the Odds ## Video: Watch John Oliver Win the Lottery Debate [Watch (HLS stream): Watch John Oliver Win the Lottery Debate](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ExO6WtWO.m3u8) (0:30)  _Published 2014-11-10. Watch John Oliver Win the Lottery Debate on Last Week Tonight_  by [Raisa Bruner](/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Nov 16, 2016 8:16 PM CUT  by [Raisa Bruner](/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Nov 16, 2016 8:16 PM CUT Nicholas Kapoor, a [statistics professor](https://www.fairfield.edu/undergraduate/academics/schools-and-colleges/college-of-arts-and-sciences/programs/mathematics/faculty/ "undefined") at Connecticut’s Fairfield University, knows a thing or two about probability; it’s his subject, after all. In a recent Powerball lottery drawing, [the probability of winning](http://time.com/4171474/powerball-lottery-more-likely-win/?iid=sr-link2 "undefined") with the ticket type he bought was 1 in 913,129, [the CT Post reports](http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Math-teacher-wins-Powerball-after-lecture-on-odds-10598131.php "undefined"). But he was that one, picking up a $100,000 prize after a recent drawing in Shelton, CT. (According to the Post, odds of winning the full jackpot are one in nearly 300 million, but odds of winning some kind of prize are, more reasonably, about one in about 25.) “Somebody can beat the odds, especially when teaching about them,” he told [New York’s ABC7 news](http://abc7ny.com/society/fairfield-statistics-professor-wins-lottery-turns-it-into-lesson/1608069/ "undefined"). He further explained to lottery officials: “The professor side of me sticks to the numbers—but the winner in me says, it’s luck.” Kapoor said he buys a ticket a week, and will continue to do so. The Powerball’s popularity peaked this January [when a $1.5 billion jackpot](http://time.com/4177143/powerball-jackpot-increase-billion/?xid=homepage "undefined"), the largest in world history, brought on a ticket-buying frenzy. And while Kapoor’s students may not have come out on top this time, he might have convinced them that chance can sometimes work out in your favor… if you play the game right. **_Gifts:_** [**_The 100 Most Influential Images of All Time_**](http://shop.time.com/storefront/subscribe-to-time/link/1039114.html?xid=cm-TIMEShopscTIMEArticle "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4573590/professor-wins-lottery/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4573590/professor-wins-lottery/"},"headline":"A Lottery-Winning Statistics Professor Tried to Teach His Students How He Beat the Odds","datePublished":"2016-11-16T20:16:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:38:44.745Z","description":"What are the odds of that?","url":"https://time.com/4573590/professor-wins-lottery/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","Lottery"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4573590/professor-wins-lottery/","name":"A Lottery-Winning Statistics Professor Tried to Teach His Students How He Beat the Odds"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Watch John Oliver Win the Lottery Debate","description":"Watch John Oliver Win the Lottery Debate on Last Week Tonight","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/ExO6WtWO/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-11-10T08:05:05.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ExO6WtWO.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4573590/professor-wins-lottery/","duration":"PT30S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4573590/professor-wins-lottery/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```