Press Your Luck scandal

The Press Your Luck scandal was contestant Michael Larson's 1984 record-breaking win of $110,237 (equivalent to $323,296 in 2023) 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.