Beat the Lotto: The story of Ireland’s great Jackpot heist lands on RTÉ One

What Beat the Lotto is about

It is one of the best stories 1990s Ireland has to offer, and it took more than 30 years to reach a screen.

In 1992, a syndicate led by Cork-born accountant Stefan Klincewicz set out “to play every single lottery line” by purchasing “all the combinations of numbers”.

Even with six numbers from 36, that was an enormous logistical and financial ask, and it only paid off if the jackpot rolled over.

Directed by Ross Whitaker, whose previous films include Katie, Between Land and Sea and Unbreakable: The Mark Pollock Story, the film features Klincewicz alongside Pat Kenny, Mark Little and Lise Hand, with archive of Klincewicz facing Kenny on Kenny Live in 1992.

Reviewing it for RTÉ Entertainment, Harry Guerin called the film “funny, pacy, and blessed with a better pitch than most Hollywood movies can manage”, a portal to a different Ireland, where a man rocking up to a newsagent’s with a crisps box full of £50 notes was entirely plausible.

Where to watch Beat the Lotto in Ireland

Beat the Lotto airs on RTÉ One at 9.35pm on Monday 24 August and streams on RTÉ Player.

If it whets the appetite, joe.ie has rounded up more of the best Irish documentaries worth your evening, and explained the changes to the Irish Lotto that make Klincewicz’s maths a good deal harder today.