Press Your Luck

CBS' Press Your Luck is a half-hour television game show.^[1] 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.^[2] The sequence was actually limited to only five different patterns, a holdover from the pilot episode's limited budget,^[3] an Achilles' heel and calculated risk understood by the show's producers.^[4]

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$14,000 (equivalent to about $43,000 in 2023). The show ran from September 1983 to September 1986, hosted by Peter Tomarken.^[2]

Michael Larson

Paul Michael "Mike" Larson was born to Ruth Larson^[5] on May 10, 1949^[6] in Lebanon, Ohio.^[1] One of four brothers,^[4] he graduated Lebanon High School in 1967.^[7][5] 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.'"^[8] Larson had three children by three different women, including Jennifer (born May 18, 1978).^[4]

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 companies that offered $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.^[9] He was arrested by Ohio law-enforcement thrice between 1969 and 1982 for receiving and concealing stolen goods, larceny by trick, and petty theft.^[10]

By 1983, he worked repairing air conditioning systems,^[11][10] drove a Mister Softee ice cream truck,^[12] and spent the rest of his time studying a wall of twelve televisions and looking for get-rich-quick schemes.^[9]

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 $29,351 (equivalent to $86,079 in 2023). Beginning with spin 16, he then landed only on squares four and eight for 29 consecutive spins totaling US$102,851 (equivalent to $301,635 in 2023) in cash and prizes. After this 44th overall spin, Larson was losing his focus.^[2] 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."^[12] Ed Long received Larson's remaining spins and hit a Whammy on his first.^[2]

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.^[12]

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,^[8] 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 $110,237 (equivalent to $323,296 in 2023). Ed Long still received his $11,516 (equivalent to $33,773 in 2023) from the previous episode, while Janie Litras' last Whammy had left her with nothing.^[2]

Fallout

CBS' Standards and Practices department thought that Larson had cheated and was not entitled to his winnings.^[3] Network executives poured over the footage, but could find no evidence of malfeasance.^[8] 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."^[13] 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 $25,000.^[8]

The episode aired on June 8 and 11, 1984,^[5] broken into two parts due to its length.^[15] 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.^[10] To prevent anyone from repeating Larson's success,^[8] the Big Board was programmed with 27 additional light patterns,^[3] and CBS set a $75,000 ceiling for contestants' winnings.^[16] Larson later contacted Press Your Luck's 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?"^[12]

Larson

Michael Larson paid $28,000^[16] or $35,000 in taxes.^[12] He immediately spent some of his winnings buying lavish gifts for his daughter's sixth birthday (the day before the episode filmed);^[4] more was invested in a real-estate Ponzi scheme.^[9]

In late 1984, Larson withdrew $100,000 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 $50,000 (equivalent to about $147,000 in 2023). Larson was convinced Dinwitty was involved in the theft, and she later fled her home with her children until Larson vacated. As of 2010^[update], the burglary had not been solved.^[9]

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 $1.8 million (equivalent to about $3.6M in 2023) 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^[3] on February 16, 1999.^[6]

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."^[8] In 2003, Variety opined that "[n]either the scandal nor Larson ever hit critical mass a la [the MIT Blackjack Team] and Charles Van Doren".^[25] Speaking on Larson's win the same year, the Boston Herald's John Ruch wrote that Larson should be "remembered as an original hacker and a classic American hero."^[22] 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."^[8]