Fortune Favors the Cookie

I could be so rich right now.

That is, of course, IF I played the Lottery.

You know what they say: If you don’t play, you can’t win. Or is it, You can’t win if you don’t play?

I guess either way it comes out the same: A person can’t wallow in those Lottery millions without shucking out a buck or two.

And making the Lottery a central part of one's life.

And a BIG part of that is coming up with those magic numbers.

But how to choose those dream-fulfilling digits – that is the question.

For some people, it comes down to their fortune cookie numbers.

After his weekly meal at a local Chinese restaurant last year, a North Carolina man used his fortune cookie numbers to play the lottery.

And now he's $4 million richer.

"I don't usually play my fortune cookie numbers but I tried them on a whim," said Gabriel Fierro, 60. He used the numbers to buy a ticket online and added $1 to make it a Megaplier ticket. When he matched all five numbers to win $1 million, it was quadrupled.

Fierro received a payout of $2,840,401 after federal and state taxes.

Damned government. Still, not too bad...

It wasn't the first time the cookies have produced fortunes for lottery players.

In 2005, 110 people from around the country each won about $100,000 playing Powerball numbers from fortune cookies. Lottery officials later found out the cookies all came from one location that makes 4 million of them a day.

And In 2014, a New York woman won a $2 million prize using numbers from her fortune cookie.

But it’s not just winning on fortune cookie numbers that’s truly amazing. It’s the lucky people who have won multiple times

Almost unbelievably, Australian Bill Morgan won twice after “dying.”

Morgan was "dead" for more than 14 minutes in 1998 after a heart attack. After he was revived from a coma, he bought a lottery ticket and won a new car.

When asked to re-create the winning scene on TV, he scratched off another winner – this time for $250,000 – on camera!

But winning twice? That’s nothing.

American Joan Ginther has won the Lottery an incredible four times -- so far. Ginther has received more than $20 million from her four winnings in Texas lottery games.

She first won the lottery in 1993, walking away with a cool $5.4 million.

In 2006, she bagged $2 million from a scratch game. Next, she won $3 million from another Texas lottery. Finally, her last and biggest win came in 2010 when she won $10 million.

Consequently, Ginther broke the odds of winning four times: 1 in 18 septillion (1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000).

It just reinforces the old adage: Some people are born lucky, while most are not.

But you gotta play to win.

And it helps if you love Chinese food.