Voltaire was quite wealthy. You might assume that his riches came from the sale of his many writing pieces. You would be wrong. Voltaire won the French lottery, and let’s just say he didn’t do it honestly.
Voltaire teamed up with a statistician at the time named Charles Marie de la Condamine. Together, they recognized a flaw in the lottery. It ran from 1728-1730 and was meant to raise money for the French government. However, Voltaire and Condamine noticed that the government was offering a sum of prize money that was far greater than what they would make by selling all the lottery tickets.
To increase their odds, Voltaire and Condamine bought a number of tickets and won the lottery. Voltaire’s share was 1 million francs. He was set for the rest of his life and free to write and observe as he pleased.