Press Your Luck scandal

The Press Your Luck scandal was contestant Michael Larson's 1984 record-breaking win of US$110237 1984 on the American game show Press Your Luck.

An Ohio man with a penchant for get-rich-quick schemes, Larson studied the game show and discovered that its ostensibly randomized game board was actually only five different patterns of lights. After successfully auditioning in person at the Los Angeles studio, Larson performed on May 19, 1984, and beat the show so dramatically, he was accused by executives of CBS, the network on which Press Your Luck aired, of cheating. After the network paid, Larson moved on to other endeavors, eventually fleeing from law-enforcement under suspicion of fraud, and dying in hiding in Apopka, Florida.

Press Your Luck
CBS' Press Your Luck is a half-hour television game show. Each half of the show began with a round of multiple-choice questions, where contestants earned three spins of the Big Board for each correct answer. The Big Board was a ring of 18 light-up squares that rapidly illuminated in a seemingly random sequence until a contestant pressed their button to stop the lights. The sequence was actually limited to only five different patterns, a holdover from the pilot episode's limited budget, an Achilles' heel and calculated risk understood by the show's producers.

Each chosen square represented three results, including prizes such as vacations, cash, and extra spins on the board; each spin also had a one-in-six chance to hit a Whammy, an animated character who wiped out that contestant's accumulated winnings. Over the show's first few episodes, winners averaged about US$14000 1983. The show ran from September 1983 to September 1986, hosted by Peter Tomarken.

Michael Larson
Paul Michael "Mike" Larson was born to Ruth Larson on May 10, 1949 in Lebanon, Ohio. One of four brothers, he graduated from Lebanon High School in 1967. By 1983 he was twice divorced and living at the home of his girlfriend, Teresa Dinwitty; she would later say of her "boyfriend and common-law husband, 'He always thought he was smarter than everybody else,' and that he had a 'constant yearning for knowledge. Larson had three children by three different women.

Larson's penchant for "always running some little scam or another" began at an early age, secretly selling marked-up candy bars to other middle-school students. Other schemes included repeatedly opening and closing bank accounts under assumed identities with those that offered US$500 for each new customer. He once registered a business under a family member's name so as to fire himself and collect unemployment insurance. He was arrested by Ohio law-enforcement thrice between 1969 and 1982 for receiving and concealing stolen goods, larceny by trick, and petty theft.

By 1983, he worked repairing air conditioning systems, drove a Mister Softee-branded ice cream truck, and spent the rest of his time studying a wall of twelve televisions and looking for get-rich-quick schemes.

Preparation
In November 1983, Larson first saw Press Your Luck and its record-breaking cash prizes. Fascinated, he bought a videocassette recorder (VCR), spent weeks analyzing the Big Board, and came to two conclusions. Firstly, the lights actually moved in five different predetermined patterns, and not randomly as advertised. Secondly, Larson never once saw a Whammy in squares four and eight. With these facts, Larson spent the next few months honing his skill at the game, using the VCR pause button to practice his timing.

Larson spent the last of his money flying from Ohio to Hollywood in May 1984, and auditioned for Press Your Luck. Hyping himself as an appealing contestant, he told interviewers about being unemployed, his bus ride to Hollywood out of love for the show, being unable to afford a birthday gift for his six-year-old daughter, and buying his dress shirt at a thrift store down the street for US$0.65 1984. Bill Carruthers, the show's executive producer, was impressed by Larson and won over by his charisma; contestant coordinator Bob Edwards would not recommend Larson, but because he could not articulate why, Carruthers overruled the decision.

Episode
Larson's episode of Press Your Luck was recorded on May 19, 1984. With production code number 0188, the episode was produced by Bill Mitchell and executively produced by show co-creator Bill Carruthers.

Larson was seated at the center lectern. To his right was returning-champion Ed Long from California, a Baptist minister; to his left was dental assistant Janie Litras. In the first question round, Larson earned three spins. He stopped his first spin on square 17, which revealed a Whammy, but also allowed him to calibrate the timing of his button presses. His next two spins landed on square four, giving Larson the lowest first-half total of US$2500 1984.

Second half
In the second half of the show, the Big Board was reorganized and placed extra spins in the safe squares of four and eight. In the question round, Larson earned seven initial spins of the Big Board, and his last-place position earned him the first spin. In his first 15 spins, Larson occasionally missed his safe squares, but was successful in avoiding Whammies, earning cash and prizes of US$29351 1984. Beginning with spin 16, he then landed only on squares four and eight for 29 consecutive spins totaling US$102851 1984 in cash and prizes. After this 44th overall spin, Larson was losing his focus. On spin 45, Larson missed the extra-spin squares: "I remember that moment. I was just so drained, […] I suddenly forgot where the whammies were. So I stopped and passed control of the board to the other players. I felt so relieved that it was over." Ed Long received Larson's remaining spins and hit a Whammy on his first.

When the show's control-booth operators realized what Larson was doing, they called Michael Brockman, CBS' head of daytime programming. Brockman later told TV Guide, "Something was very wrong […] Here was this guy from nowhere, and he was hitting the bonus box every time. It was bedlam, I can tell you." Press Your Luck producers wanted to stop the show, but without any apparent rule-breaking by Larson, they were forced to allow it to continue.

When Litras' turn came around, she passed her last three spins to Larson, who was obligated by the rules to use them. Larson stopped the first two spins in squares four and eight, but he stopped the third too early and it landed on square 17. Instead of the Whammy again, though, it was a trip to The Bahamas. That ended the game, and after 47 spins of the Big Board, Michael Larson had won cash and prizes (including a sailboat and all-inclusive vacations to Kauai and The Bahamas) totaling US$110237 1984. Ed Long still received his US$11516 1984 from the previous episode, while Janie Litras' last Whammy had left her with nothing.

Fallout
CBS' Standards and Practices department thought that Larson had cheated and was not entitled to his winnings. Network executives pored over the footage, but could find no evidence of malfeasance. Former executive for CBS Daytime programming, Bob Boden, explained in 2007 the network's "prevailing wisdom […] was that he hadn't cheated; that he was just smarter than CBS." A few weeks later, they mailed Larson a cheque. He was ineligible to return to the show (as Long had done) because he had exceeded the network's limit of US$25000.

The episode aired on June 8 and 11, 1984, broken into two parts due to its length. Some at CBS had wanted to quash the episode entirely, and afterwards made the ultimatum that it never be aired again, even including that requirement with their broadcast syndication contracts. To prevent anyone from repeating Larson's success, the Big Board was programmed with 27 additional light patterns, and CBS set a US$75000 ceiling for contestants' winnings. Larson later contacted Press Your Luck contestant coordinator and issued an unanswered challenge: "I know you've added patterns to the board, but I bet I can beat you again. How about a tournament of champions?"

Legacy
A film adaptation of the event was in the works by August 2000; titled Press Your Luck, the comedy film featured Howard Franklin as screenwriter and director, Nicolas Cage as producer, and had cast Bill Murray to portray Larson. On November 13, 2017, Modernito Books published Larson - The Luckiest Man in the World by Javi de Castro, a graphic novel about Larson's Press Your Luck winning streak. On May 9, 2024, Protagonist Pictures announced its drama–thriller adaptation of the scandal; titled Press Your Luck, Maggie Briggs and Samir Oliveros wrote the script, Oliveros directed, and Paul Walter Hauser was cast as Larson.

With the 1994 release of the film Quiz Show, Larson appeared on Good Morning America to discuss the film and his performance on Press Your Luck. On March 16, 2003, the Game Show Network (GSN) aired its first documentary film; all about the 1984 event, the two-hour Big Bucks: The Press Your Luck Scandal gave the eight-year-old network its highest Nielsen ratings yet, and reunites Litras, Long, and Peter Tomarken from the original taping. The first episode of GSN's Cover Story documentary series was also about the Press Your Luck win ("The Press Your Luck Scandal"); upon its 7:00   PM, January 14, 2018 broadcast, the hour-long episode was watched by 583,000.

On a March 17, 2003 memorial episode of Whammy! The All-New Press Your Luck (a remake of the original show), Ed Long and Janie Litras returned to play against Larson's brother, James Larson. In his 2004 book Life as a Loser, Will Leitch credited the Press Your Luck scandal with inspiring his own appearance on Win Ben Stein's Money.

Larson's 1984 record for "most game-show winnings in a single day" was US$110237 1984. It lasted until 2006 when The Price Is Right contestant Vickyann Chrobak-Sadowski won US$147517 2006. She was succeeded by Sheree Heil, whose 2013 Price Is Right winnings totaled US$170345 2013.

Larson
Michael Larson paid US$28000 or US$35000 in taxes. He immediately spent some of his winnings buying lavish gifts for his daughter's sixth birthday (the day before the episode filmed); more was invested in a real-estate Ponzi scheme.

In late 1984, Larson withdrew US$100000 in one-dollar bills to try and win a local contest by matching serial numbers. After redepositing half of the bills, the remaining money was stored around Dinwitty's house while the two exhaustedly checked each bill. One evening, while the two were away from home, burglars stole the remaining US$50000 1984. Larson was convinced Dinwitty was involved in the theft, and she later fled her home with her children until Larson vacated. , the burglary had not been solved.

After working as an assistant manager at Wal-Mart, Larson sold shares in a fraudulent multi-level marketing scheme; in 1995 he was charged for taking US$1.8 million (equivalent to about $M in ) from 14,000 investors. Under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service, and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, he fled Ohio for Apopka, Florida, where he died of throat cancer on February 16, 1999.

Larson became regarded as a modern-day folk hero to some people, while others "regard him as a cheap huckster or a likable-but-occasionally-creepy crackpot." In 2003, Variety opined that "[n]either the scandal nor Larson ever hit critical mass a la [the MIT Blackjack Team&#93; and Charles Van Doren". Speaking on Larson's win the same year, the Boston Herald John Ruch wrote that Larson should be "remembered as an original hacker and a classic American hero." In 2011, Damn Interesting opined that despite the 1984 win having been called a cheat, a scam, or a scandal, "his impressive performance on Press Your Luck may be one of the only honest days of work that Michael Larson ever did."