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Man Cheats on Air, Becomes Biggest Winner Ever | Tales From the Bottle

Qxir | December 12, 2025



The show didn’t want to pay him, but with a flaw like that, how did this not happen sooner?

“Paul Michael Larson (May 10, 1949 – February 16, 1999) was an American contestant on the television game show Press Your Luck in 1984. Larson is notable for winning $110,237 (equivalent to $271,000 in 2019) in cash and prizes, at the time the largest one-day total ever won on a game show. He was able to win by memorizing the patterns used on the Press Your Luck game board.
Originally from southwestern Ohio, Larson used his cash winnings for taxes and real estate investments. However, he also had problems with the law and was involved in illegal schemes. As a result, Larson lost all of his winnings within two years of the show’s taping and moved to Florida, where he later died of throat cancer at the age of 49. Since his death in 1999, Larson’s game has re-aired on TV at various times and inspired two Game Show Network documentaries: Big Bucks: The Press Your Luck Scandal in 2003 and Cover Story: The Press Your Luck Scandal in 2018.”

More on Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Larson

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Written by Qxir

Comments

This post currently has 31 comments.

  7. @KefkeWren

    December 12, 2025 at 7:28 pm

    Kind of crazy. Man breaks no rules, just practices and displays legitimate skill, but still gets branded a cheater. That's like saying someone's cheating if they brush up on their trivia before applying to be on Jeopardy.

  8. @misledprops

    December 12, 2025 at 7:28 pm

    The guy was an ass. Just a grifter. He didn’t cheat, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t a joke of a human. The people defending him here are just grifters like him. Looking to get rich without work

  17. @Ken_Scaletta

    December 12, 2025 at 7:28 pm

    Anybody else could have figured out those patterns too. He did not have any advantage over his opponents, he just paid attention and di work that anyone else could have done if they'd thought of it. He broke no rules, he just outsmarted them.

  18. @TobyGanske

    December 12, 2025 at 7:28 pm

    Genius.

    He watched the light patterns instead of the pictures in the squares (like everyone naturally would) and noticed repeating patterns.

    Utilized a VCR to "play at home" to develop timing, while memorizing the patterns and "numbering" the squares.

    Noticing through multiple episodes that two squares never had a whammy in them and always a extra spin+prize.

    He could play till he passed out from sleep deprivation.

  29. @RSfan1

    December 12, 2025 at 7:28 pm

    Is this even cheating? Just seems like mastering the mechanics to me, if they didn't want that to happen they should have completely randomized it

Comments are closed.

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