Fortune Cookie Lottery Numbers Helped People Score Over $400M In Winnings
When you go to a Chinese restaurant with family and friends, everyone might order a different dish, but chances are pretty good that you’ll all end your meal with the same thing: fortune cookies. Half the fun is reading the nugget of wisdom on the little rectangle of paper inside. But how often do you follow the advice on the other side?
A new study by OpenFortune, a fortune cookie-based marketing and manufacturing group, reveals that the numbers printed on fortunes have been surprisingly lucky for some people. The data shows that 146 lottery winners in 40 different states used their fortune cookie numbers to win big between 2004 and 2021. Those winners racked up an impressive $406 million during that time, with 93% of them winning over $100,000.
According to the survey, the three states with the most winners from fortune cookie numbers are South Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. And the “luckiest” numbers? Those would be 4, 14, 15, 22, 26, and 28. The New York Post reported that one of the most recent winners was a North Carolina resident who scored half a million dollars from a Powerball ticket in February using the numbers from the fortune cookie in his Chinese takeout.
So the next time you crack open a cookie after your lo mein, hang on to that small slip of paper. It could truly bring you a fortune.
