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Extra.ie
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Extra.ie
FILM REVIEW OF THE WEEK: Beat The Lotto
Beat the Lotto , the latest offering from director Ross Whitaker, is a charming and light documentary that spins the tale of a group of amateur gamblers, hustlers, and dreamers who, in 1992, decided they could outsmart the Irish National Lottery. What unfolds is part caper, part cultural time capsule, and part portrait of the particularly Irish love of cheekily bending the rules and rooting for the underdog though who the underdog in this story is less obvious than it seems. With his trademark curiosity and affection for character-driven stories, Whitaker introduces us to Stefan Klincewicz, a moustachioed accountant with a head for numbers and a twinkle in his eye, who assembled a ragtag syndicate determined to buy every possible ticket combination and win the jackpot. Their plan was bold, audacious, and grounded in cold, hard mathematics, and the documentary walks viewers through the scheme with enough clarity and humour to keep even the most math-averse of us engaged. The true joy of Beat the Lotto is in its cast of real-life characters, many of whom are interviewed on screen. These men, older but no less spirited, bring a warmth and wit that lights up the film, and their mix of nostalgia, mischief, and sheer cheekiness is deeply endearing. Theres a sense that what they were really after wasnt just money, but fun, adventure, and the thrill of beating the odds or at least of giving it a good go. (Its interesting to note that no women appear to be in the syndicate though there was rumoured to be one woman involved, and members mention not telling their wives what they were up to, so there is like many films about finance a deeply embedded boys club mentality throughout.) Whitaker makes full use of grainy 90s TV clips, old chat show appearances, and golden-hued footage from the era, which gives the film a kind of dusty, familiar texture, and viewers who remember the early years of the Lotto will find much here to delight in. The clothes, the graphics, the music, the very tone of that time in Ireland its all there, and it makes for oddly comforting viewing, even when the subject is a potential multi-million pound scheme that was legal, but felt unfair to the average punter hoping their weekly lotto ticket could change their life. A testy interview between Pat Kenny and Stefan Klincewicz is spicily entertaining, and clips of Lotto representative Ray Bates are fantastic, as he passionately argues for fairness and equality in the Lotto. News cameras following syndicate members trying to offload hundreds of tickets in local shops feel like a wildly entertaining live episode of Crimecall , and watching the syndicate deftly turn the media narrative in another direction is a fun lesson in P.R. In this David V. Goliath story, the roles constantly change – and of course, for those unfamiliar with the story, the suspense of whether the scheme will pay off and pay out is well built. That said, the film isnt without its flaws. The pacing occasionally drags, with some interviews returning to the same points a few too many time. The dramatic reenactments dont feel necessary, and there are moments when you wish the film would stretch further beyond the mechanics of the plan and explore the broader political and cultural context of the time. It hints at a wider national mood one shaped by emigration, economic precarity and a desire to believe in something better but never quite digs in. A deeper exploration of what it meant for Irish people to put their faith in a government-backed game of chance, or how that faith sat alongside growing disillusionment in other state institutions, would have made the film deeper and stronger. Still, Beat the Lotto succeeds where it counts. It tells an Irish story that is funny, weird, and true, and does so with a lightness of touch. Ultimately, this is a film about belief in luck, in numbers, in collective effort, and in a system that might, just might, be beatable. Its about risk and reward, trust and trickery, and the uniquely Irish art of taking the craic seriously. In cinemas now. Watch the trailer below:
Irish Examiner
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Film review: Jurassic Park: Rebirth places the focus on the real stars — the dinosaurs
It is hard to believe the world might grow weary of living dinosaurs, but such is the world of Jurassic Park: Rebirth (12A), which begins 32 years on from the opening of the theme park that offered the miracle of resurrected Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus rex, et al. These days, alas, the kids are inured to the wonder of the dinosaurs, who, dying off due to climate change and disease, can only be found in the wild in a no-go zone around the equator. Enter Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend), a pharmaceutical company fixer who requires dino DNA for a revolutionary new heart medicine, and who commissions the mercenary Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson) to assemble a team to source the DNA of three of the biggest dinosaurs that ever lived. Complicating matters is the fact that the three behemoths are seagoing, airborne, and land-dwelling; also, the samples need to be taken from living creatures. Having thus raised the stakes a little higher than previous Jurassic Park movies, director Gareth Edwards unleashes his crack team on a remote island — Zora pulls in her old sea-captain pal Duncan (Mahershala Ali), and dino expert Dr Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) — and tosses them into scenarios that fans of the franchise will recognise as a kind of Jurassic Park greatest hits, albeit one that includes dinosaurs that have evolved/mutated into beasts that are strongly reminiscent of the nightmarish creatures from the Alien franchise. An early nod to the work of animation genius Ray Harryhausen tells us that Edwards is deliberately harking back to past glories, and for the most part it works. Scarlett Johansson is enjoyably self-deprecating and hard-nosed as the mercenary-in-chief, and there's strong support from a charismatic Mahershala Ali and a quietly diffident Jonathan Bailey, who deftly juggles the twin roles of hapless boffin and Johansson's love interest — although, as always, it's the terrifying dinosaurs who are the real stars. Vincent Cassel and Diane Kruger in 'The Shrouds.' The Shrouds ★★★☆☆ Cinema release The Shrouds (16s) stars Vincent Cassel as Karsh Relik, a man who has pioneered 'Gravetech', a coffin-cam technology and the ultimate memento mori that allows mourners to observe their loved ones decomposing in their graves. Obsessed with his dead wife Becca (Diane Kruger), Karsh is horrified when his cemetery is vandalised, and suspects corporate sabotage —a view shared by Terry (also played by Kruger), Becca's sister and Karsh's confidante. All of which sounds morbid, to say the least, but is par for the course for writer-director David Cronenberg, who once again explores many of the motifs that have characterised his work: body horror, doppelgängers, the unholy blend of human and machine. It all feels rather stilted, however, and particularly Cassel's performance and dialogue delivery, and the story itself has the clumsy, fumbling feel of a man trying to remember how this thing used to work. Beat the Lotto Beat the Lotto ★★★☆☆ Cinema release Beat the Lotto (G) is a documentary by Ross Whitaker detailing how a syndicate of gamblers, assembled in 1992 by Cork man Stefan Klincewicz, attempted to scoop the Lotto by buying up every single possible combination of six numbers. Featuring contemporary TV footage and talking heads interviews with the syndicate members, the film does a surprisingly good job of ramping up the tension in a story we already know the outcome of, as the Lotto, alerted to the unusual patterns of play, goes on the offensive. That said, Whitaker is less successful at framing the syndicate as plucky outsiders who took on the system and won; despite their almost child-like excitement at being on the inside track, these are men who seek to strip away the fantasy of winning the Lotto in their pursuit of a cast-iron plunger. As journalist Mark Little points out, the perfectly legal heist marked the death of a certain kind of economic innocence as we belatedly learned that the luck of the Irish was no substitute for a clear-eyed appraisal of the odds.
The Journal
03-07-2025
- Business
- The Journal
'It had the feeling of a heist thriller': The man who tried to beat the Lotto
Syndicate mastermind, Stefan Klincewicz Eclipse Eclipse IN 1987 IRELAND, the arrival of the National Lottery became a bright spot in the middle of a recession. Who wouldn't want the opportunity to win huge sums in an Ireland that was struggling financially – even if it meant gambling your own money? The fact that some National Lottery funds go to good causes made the deal even sweeter. But for some people, it wasn't enough to let the Lotto do its thing. They wanted to see if they could beat it. One of those people was Stefan Klincewicz, a Corkonian accountant with serious maths skills who reckoned he could find a way to win big. He ended up gathering a syndicate who over the period of a year filled out two million Lotto tickets according to his method. Their work culminated on a weekend in May 1992 when the lottery was having a huge £1.7 million rollover. But with such large sums being spent on Lotto tickets, their behaviour began to draw attention to itself. What happened next, and was Klincewicz correct about the potential result? That's what Beat the Lotto, a new documentary directed by Ross Whitaker (Katie, The Boys in Green, Rachael Blackmore: A Grand Year) explores. It arrives in cinemas this Thursday. 'The feeling of a heist thriller' Whitaker was at a wedding when another guest suggested he make a documentary about the syndicate. 'Immediately a light bulb went off in my head, because it was at the time exactly the kind of story I was looking for – to do something retrospective that you can have a lot of fun with, and try and build something that almost had the feeling of a heist thriller,' says Whitaker. There was one potential issue: in his memory, the syndicate was fairly clandestine. 'So I imagined that they might not necessarily be that open to the documentary,' says Whitaker. He met with Klincewicz and assured him 'that it certainly wasn't going to be a hatchet job – that we really just wanted to tell the story as it happened.' Soon Klincewicz was on board, and put Whitaker in touch with other syndicate members. In the end, the documentary took 10 years to come to fruition. Beating the system At the heart of Beat the Lotto is Klincewicz, a man who was lightly derided for having the maverick idea that he could 'beat' the National Lottery. An early clip in the documentary shows Pat Kenny grilling Klincewicz on the Late Late Show about a book he wrote on beating the Lotto – despite the fact he hadn't actually won it. Yet there's a sense that he is able to handle the questions, because he believes in what he's discovered. 'Stefan's a really interesting character – someone that had this natural ability for maths,' says Whitaker. Additionally, he was of Polish origin which would have made him stand out while growing up. 'He probably felt, with his Polish name in Ireland of the time, that he was maybe a little bit different, and was made to feel a little bit different to those around him,' says the director. 'So maybe in some way that fuelled his interest in taking on the system. Maybe he didn't feel like he was entirely part of the system.' Advertisement Pat Kenny interviews Stefan Klincewicz Eclipse Eclipse Klincewicz's idea for beating the Lotto was based around a system that took advantage of the weekends where the Lottery offered special offers. This means that the documentary has to explain what to some of us is a complicated mathematical idea. 'When you're explaining something to people, it's often not that entertaining,' says Whitaker. 'So when I was interviewing the subjects, I would get each of them to explain it in as simple a language as they could, and then combine those accounts together, as well as putting text on screen to set it up.' Regardless of how much of the maths you understand, the quest that Klincewicz and his syndicate were on is clear in the documentary, and that they had a lot of fun with their high-stakes plan. The syndicate Klincewicz was able to gather a significant group of syndicate members around him. 'The group of people that were involved, they were people that probably naturally were attracted to these kinds of things,' says Whitaker. 'Stefan went about it in an extremely professional way. He created a presentation, he delivered it to people in a way that was tangible. It took a year to convince people. So he started filling out those forms, it took about a year to get them all ready. In a way, apart from the maths element of it and so on, it's the actual diligence and the organisational skills [that is impressive]. To create a system to actually fill out the boxes in an orderly way is probably where the real genius of it was, the logistics of making that happen. Ray Bates EclipsePicturesIE / YouTube One of the other key characters in the documentary is Ray Bates, the head of the National Lottery at the time, who was gregarious and media-savvy. 'He'd had a pretty stellar civil service career up until then. And not only was he a really, really smart guy and a natural marketer of the organisation that he was leading, he was just brilliant on television,' says Whitaker. 'We'd hoped that Ray might participate in the documentary, but in the end unfortunately he decided not to. But we got to meet him a couple of times along the way and he's as intelligent and charismatic in real life as he was back in the old footage.' 'The National Lottery, of course, would have preferred if people weren't attempting to do something like this,' adds Whitaker. 'So you can understand his perspective.' 'Sprinkling golddust' The documentary gives an insight into what the National Lottery meant to Ireland in the 1980s and 1990s. National Lottery chief Ray Bates Eclipse Eclipse 'People that were growing up at that time might remember that suddenly there was a basketball court or a tennis court, or some facility in their community, and there'd be a little placard outside saying it was paid for by the National Lottery,' says Whitaker. 'Now, of course, the National Lottery got their funds from citizens that were buying tickets, but at the same time, it felt like there was this organisation that was suddenly sprinkling gold dust at a time when people were quite downtrodden.' 'It became this incredibly positive institution in a country where people didn't feel very positively about their institutions.' Klincewicz was willing to take on this institution in a way others weren't. But did his audacious plan work? That's for the documentary to reveal. Beat the Lotto is in cinemas from tomorrow, July 4. Check for screenings. Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... 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Metro
19-06-2025
- Business
- Metro
Man who took on the Lotto and won reveals what he'd do with £208,000,000 jackpot
Paddy Kehoe is still recognised on the streets as the man who changed the way Ireland's lottery system is run. In 1992, the now 78-year-old formed a group with mathematician Stefan Klincewicz to win the £1 million euro jackpot. But this jackpot, which saw a fellow Irish citizen claim £208 million, he forgot to buy one. Sitting across from me in an upscale Dublin hotel, Paddy said: 'I don't do the Irish lotto anymore, it's not as exciting anymore.' The year Paddy won, there were only 36 numbers in the draw, making it possible to buy every single combination and make a decent profit after. It was a flaw in the system, but it a flaw ready to be exploited by anyone who was brave enough to do it first. But Paddy, who is well-known in the world of horse-racing, is still bitter about how the plan unfolded. He explained to Metro: 'We came to the conclusion that we can cover every possible combination for less than one million euros, but we didn't get what was owed to us.' Unsurprisingly the group won the jackpot, but it was announced the jackpot would be shared with two others who had also bought a winning ticket, reducing the syndicate's share to £568,682. In the end, Paddy's profit sat at a modest £40,000 which he said 'is nothing in the world of gambling'. He said: 'That wouldn't even get you a deposit on a house these days. I still have my suspicions that there was not a third winner.' Paddy lost most of his lottery winnings in the 2008 financial crash, and continues to lose money 'every time Trump opens his mouth'. And if he won the full jackpot today? It would go back into investments and gambling. Scowling, he said: 'If I were to win that money, I would try and get my stock values back up to where they were, but Trump is the worst person to have ever been born. He just makes my shares plummet.' Paddy is now urging the winner of this week's £208 million to claim the money as soon as they possibly can. 'I nearly took the National Lottery to court after they wouldn't hand over the money quick enough,' he said. 'They need to get on it and get it in their accounts. You never know what's going to happen, your house could burn down tomorrow so they need to sort it.' Although Kehoe's plan didn't play out the way he wanted to, it changed the way to lottery was ran after he eventually collected his money. In the fall out the numbers in the draw were quickly raised and today sits at 47. More Trending No one can possible replicate his scheme now after the jackpot was capped at 19 millions euros as well, but a film called Beat the Lotto is being released on the group's plan. He said: 'My young nieces and nephews ask me about my Lotto winnings, and I still get people recognise me. Since his lotto wins and his financial highs and lows, Paddy still works in his suspended ceilings business which he started up 50 years ago. 'I should have given up a long time ago,' he said. 'But it's good to keep busy.' Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Biker dad will retire and buy wife a hot tub after £3,900,000 Lottery win MORE: EuroMillions players urged to check tickets with £208,000,000 jackpot unclaimed MORE: Scaffolder wins £11,500,000 million from a £1.50 bet
RTÉ News
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
Beat the Lotto coming to cinemas next month
Beat the Lotto, the award-winning documentary from director Ross Whitaker (Between Land and Sea, Katie), will be released in cinemas on Friday 4 July. The film "charts the true story that captivated Ireland in 1992; the syndicate helmed by mathematician Stefan Klincewicz and their attempt to cover close to two million combinations and guarantee a rollover Lotto jackpot win". Describing his film as "a reflection of Ireland in the 1990s", director Whitaker said: "We wanted to make a film that encouraged people to reflect on what side they take - are they in favour of the syndicate who are trying to beat the system, or the trusted national institution that was a very positive force in 1990s Ireland? "It was enjoyable to build the film to an exciting climax and for the audience to wonder who would win out in the end." Beat the Lotto received its world premiere at the Dublin International Film Festival in February 2025, winning the Best Irish Film award from the Dublin Film Critics' Circle.
