The Whammy That Won: Inside the Press Your Luck Scandal

Welcome to True Crime, authors and Extraordinary People, the podcast where we bring two passions together.

The show that gives new meaning to the old adage, truth is stranger than fiction.

And reminding you that there is an extraordinary person in all of us, here is your host, David McClam.

What's going on, everybody?

And welcome to another episode of True Crime.

All the extraordinary people, of course.

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All right, so welcome to the first episode of season three.

I usually do not give dates, but because of what today is, I am recording this on January 20th of 2025, which is Martin Luther King Day.

Stay tuned to the end and I'll give you maybe some words of encouragement as we move into this new in hopes that we can all make it through this time that we are about to face.

All right, As I try to do at the beginning of every season is I kind of give you a fun case because I know what's coming down the pipeline, and the cases that we're going to get into this year are not going to be as easy as this.

So they have a little bit of fun at the beginning and maybe give you a case that you've never, ever heard of, or maybe you was too young to hear of or you heard of it, but you never really dove deep into it.

So today we're going to dive into one of the most extraordinary and controversial stories in game show history.

It is the press your luck scandal.

Now, at the head of this story is Michael Larson, and it is a tale of intelligence, obsession, greed, and ultimate downfall.

So let's press our luck here and get into it.

The year was 1984.

Ronald Reagan was in the White House.

MTV was in his heyday, and Press yous Luck was a hit on cbs.

It was a game show where contestants could win vacations, prizes, and cash by spinning the big board, a ring of 18 flashing squares that seemed to move in a random pattern.

Contestants would press a button to stop the lights and they were hoping to avoid the dreaded whammy, who was a mischievous animated character that wiped out all of their winnings.

But as it turned out, the Big Boy wasn't as random as it seemed.

And one man from Ohio figured it out.

Now, Pressure Luck is one of my favorite game shows.

It still is.

My mom and I used to watch all the time when I was a kid.

The original host, these hosts that I saw was Peter to Morgan.

He was the original host on that show.

And unfortunately, he's no longer with us because Peter to Morgan was killed March 13, 2006, in a plane crash.

The show now is currently hosted by Elizabeth Banks.

So you can find it now, I think it's in like the third or fourth new season or something like that.

You can find it on Hulu, but go check out the show.

It is a great show.

Now, as we just heard, the board wasn't as random as it seemed, and one man from Ohio was able to figure that out.

So Paul Michael Larson, who was born in Lebanon, Ohio, was a man with a knack for get rich quick schemes.

And by 1983, he was living with his girlfriend, Teresa Dinwiddie, working odd jobs like air conditioning repair and driving an ice cream truck.

But Larson had bigger dreams.

He spent his spare time studying game shows and scheming ways to make a fortune.

So one night, while watching Press yous Luck, Larson noticed something peculiar.

See, the flashing lights on the Big Boy wasn't random at all.

With the help of a vcr, a cutting edge technology for his time, Larson studied the patterns and discovered there were only five sequences.

Even more importantly, he realized that two squares, 4 and 8, never contained a whammy.

They always had cash or an extra spin.

So Larson spent months perfecting his timing, practicing over and over with his VCR's pause button, and he believed he had cracked the code.

Now, we're talking back in the 80s, right?

So for those of you young people who don't know what a VCR is, it was kind of a big oblong machine.

We actually had to put these big things in them called videotapes, VCR tapes.

You can find some now.

Still, some people sell them.

But this was our way of watching movies or recording shows from TV.

There was no such thing as DVDs.

There was no such thing as CDs, the way we know them.

Now, this was the only way of recording.

Matter of fact, you probably heard your parents sometimes say, hey, do you have the vcr or do you have the Betamax?

That was another version of the vcr.

Then we will record our shows and we will pause and go through them.

Technology, of course, was not as advanced as it was now.

So these game shows have very simplistic boards that if somebody had the net, they can figure that out.

And in this case, if you've never seen the show, Pressure Luck, like it says, it's just a spinning board.

So you have all of these different things popping in and out of these squares.

Some of them are whammies, some of them are cash, some of them are prizes, some of them are trips.

Your goal is to hit that button, yell stop, and hopefully that behind that square is not a whammy.

If you do hit a whammy Today, you have $30,000.

The whammy will come and will wipe out all that money.

But if you never hit a whammy, you just continue to pile cash up on your or prizes, whichever one you hit.

Now, as he discovered that squares 4 and 8 never contained a whammy, of course, they were not expecting somebody to figure that out.

They always contain extra cash or spin.

So what do you think he was thinking?

I know what I've been thinking.

Can I come with the way to consistently hit 4 and 8?

I will never hit a whammy.

I will always win.

Producers ain't thinking about this, because no one's cracked this board like this before.

So by May 1984, Larson was ready to test his theory.

Using the last of his money, he flew to Los Angeles and auditioned for Pressure Luck.

His charm and charisma won over the producers, and despite some reservations, they gave him a spot on the show.

The episode was filmed on May 19, 1984.

Larson's opponents were Ed Long, a Baptist minister, and Janie Lettres, a dental assistant.

See, at first, Larson's performance was unremarkable.

He hit a whammy early on and had the lowest score going into the second half.

But then the magic began.

Larson started to dominate the big board like no one had ever seen.

And by carefully timing his button presses, he avoided the whammies and landed on squares four and eight repeatedly.

He had hit 29 consecutive winning spins, racking up an unprecedented $102,851 in cash and prizes.

When all was said and done, Larson's total winnings was $110,237, which is the equivalent to over $323,000 today.

Now, what you have to understand is there is a documentary called Pressure Luck.

You can find it on YouTube.

There were some of these Producers, though, when they met Larson that really didn't like him.

I think there was even a couple of them that went and said, maybe we should think twice about having this guy on the show.

Because I believe the story that he told on the show when he got on there was that he was just an ice cream man.

I think that's what he.

I can't remember for a second.

I think it's something.

Ice cream.

There was something else that he did, but he just came off like he was just an average everyday Joe.

Some people in the production team, though, was kind of feeling that he was there for shadier purposes, but they went ahead and allowed him on the show.

Now, of course, since he's racked up $110,237, I believe at this time, this is the most money that anybody has ever racked up.

You have to understand the way that these game shows are set up.

Now, I live in California, where some calls the home of movies.

We have Universal Studios here, which is Universal Studios Hollywood, There's Universal Studios Florida.

But the Hollywood set contains a lot of sets from movies and TV shows.

And of course, all the game shows mainly is shot here.

I have actually been to Hollywood Squares Live, which is shot in the exact same studio of the Price Is Right.

So that's why everybody comes to LA for these things.

They have never seen this kind of winnings before.

And the way that these shows are set up is you're not supposed to win that much money.

At some point, you're going to smack a whammy.

Now, if you ever watch the show, me and my wife, you guys probably get annoyed because there are some people that's just greedy and they want to continue to pressure luck.

And if you make it around that board about four or five different times and no whammy shows up and you've just racked up about 20, 30,000.

The whammy is on his way.

Now, if you never watch this show, let me kind of give you the options that the person that is spinning has.

Let's say the person has 20 spins.

That's kind of high.

Just go with the number.

If that person makes it through half of Those spins being 10 and has not hit a whammy, Elizabeth will say, all right, here's what you just hit on the board.

So let's say you got the car.

Okay, so you just won the car.

You have now a total in your bank of $320,000.

Do you want to press your luck or do you want to pass?

Now, here's why I say instead of for you not to win any money, you can't just pass those spins to anyone.

Those spins has to get passed to the person that has the second highest total.

So if you've got 320,000, the person next to you only has 5,000, and the person on that opposite end has 110,000, your experience is going to go to the $110,000 person.

Because the producers in the game hoping that you are going to whammy on that person, they really want the person with the most money to keep spinning in hopes that that happens.

But if you are smart, you're going to pass them.

I guarantee you, within one to two spins, the whammy will show up.

So this is why this is the game of greed.

Because some people like, man, I'm gonna press my luck.

And I'm sitting here going, your dummy.

You don't run around this board six times, no whammies.

Whammy about to come up, and sure enough, whammy hit.

So they start looking around.

They're shocked.

Man, he's already hit 110,000.

Do we even have 110,000 in the bank to give this person and all these cash and prizes?

So they go on.

So as the producers were stunned and as the game unfolded, CBS executives rushed to the studio convincing Larson must be cheating.

But after reviewing the footage, they realized he had done nothing illegal.

Larson has simply outsmarted the game.

And the episode aired in two parts on June 8th and 11th of 1984, but CBS banned it from being re aired in syndication.

They also revamped the big board, adding 27 new patterns to prevent anyone else from exploding the system.

People.

Because this was an embarrassment.

This was an embarrassment to cbs.

Now Larson did nothing, but now CBS is on the hook to have to give him all this money.

$110,000.

And believe me, you'll hear here in a minute, they're gonna do everything they can not to have to pay him that 110,000.

But in your mind, think this.

I'll ask you, do you think that Larson was cheating?

I don't.

I think he just figured out this simple board.

It's not his fault that they made this board crackable.

It's not his fault that they didn't think that one day somebody would figure out squares 4 and 8 had no whammy in it.

It ain't his fault that he decided, hey, I'm just gonna sit at home and I'm gonna practice it in VCR and see if I can make it.

He's already proved to you that he wasn't cheating and that his plan wasn't 100% foolproof if he didn't concentrate, because his first spin, I believe it was, he hit the whammy and had the lowest score going into the second round.

In that round, he found his rhythm.

He found we had to hit the button every time.

And there you have it.

Now, they did everything they could have to pay him, but eventually they said, okay, he did no wrongdoing, and they gave Michael Larson All $110,237 in cash and prizes, mostly in cash.

But see, after he won, after his victory, after what I believe was the biggest victory in TV game show history, Larson's life took a dark turn.

He spent much of his winnings on questionable investments, including a real estate Ponzi scheme.

He even withdrew $100,000 in $1 bills to try to win a radio contest.

That cash was later stolen from his girlfriend's home in a still unsolved burglary.

People, let me give you a piece of advice.

If you win a hundred and ten thousand or any like that, don't go pulling out 100 grand put in your house.

He left it in his house.

One night, they all went out to eat, and he left a double bag full of $1 bills that was $100,000 in the middle of his living room.

I think at some point his wife even said something to him or his girlfriend.

I'm sorry, even said something to him like, don't we want to take this with us?

Or, you know, don't you want to lock it?

He said, nope, I think we gonna be fine.

Here's the one thing for all of us to remember.

Somebody's always watching us.

And I believe the way this unfolded was somebody was watching him.

You know, it said he made qu investments.

The way that Michael Larson looked to me was he was the kind of person that really couldn't keep his mouth shut.

He probably ran around, was talking about all the winnings he got, but better yet, it was on national tv.

So everybody knew that he already won all this money.

So I believe that somebody was lying in wait.

Somebody probably saw him carry a duffel bag in one day, and they said, one day when he ain't there, we gonna go on and see if we get lucky.

And that's what happened.

They broke into his house or his girlfriend's house, stole the duffel bag that had a hundred thousand dollars in it.

And until this day, that burglary or what actually happened is still unsolved.

So by 1995, Larson was under investigation for running a fraudulent multi level marketing scheme.

Facing charges from the FBI, the rs, he fed Ohio and went into hiding.

He died unfortunately of throat cancer in 1999 alone in Apopka, Florida at the age of 49.

Michael Larson's story is one of brilliance and tragedy.

He outsmarted one of the most popular game shows of all time.

But his insatiable greed and pension for schemes ultimately led to his downfall.

To some, he's a folk hero, a David who beat Goliath.

To others, he's a cautionary tale.

His story has inspired documentaries, books and even a 2024 film titled the Luckiest man in America, starring Paul Walter Holzer as Larson.

But no matter how you view him, one thing is clear.

Michael Larson left an indelible mark on game show history.

Now, I know that you would kind of think that because of the way that it happened that maybe they don't talk about Michael Arsenal anymore or maybe it is a piece of a history they rather forget.

I can tell you that's far from the truth.

If you go and look up this documentary and I'll leave a link to it in the bottom of the show notes here, you'll see at the end of that, they did call back everybody, the people that was on the show with Marco Larson, even I think one of the two producers came back.

Unfortunately no Peter to Morgan because he's already passed.

But they came back and talked about what happened the day he was on the show with Michael Larson.

They even had a replica of the old board the way that it was.

And then they showed the contestants from years ago what the new board looked like.

Now that thing runs like 27 squares and so many thousands of patterns.

So now it would.

You would have to actually cheat now at this point in time and the way that this is set up to actually do the same thing that he did again, it is something that I don't think will ever, ever be repeated at all.

Because it's impossible with today's technology for that to happen.

If something like that happens again, then he's either inside job or somebody really messed up on the programming.

So what do you guys think?

Have you ever heard of that case before?

It is very true.

It is one that I've always wanted to cover.

So here it is.

Go look it up for yourself.

I have not seen the 2024 film titled the Luckiest man in America.

That is now my plan because I would like to see you know the take they took on it.

And I always like to know if they tell the truth in these things.

I know some things are sensational lies, but you gotta have that ounce of truth in there.

All right here at closing, I think I said I was going to come back and kind of have a couple of words of encouragement as we go into this new year.

I think I did make mention at the beginning that I was recording this on what I consider and many others does consider a historic day, January 20, 2025, which is Martin Luther King's Day.

So I know that Martin Luther King's birthday is on January 15th, but I think the way that was set up is that we were celebrated on the second Monday of January, which leads us to the 20th.

It has not been missed on me that today was also the inauguration of Donald Trump.

So let me tell you why I stand on that and kind of give you guys a couple of words of encouragement, if I can, before we get out of here.

I know there's some people that's happy.

I know there's some people that's sad.

I know there's a lot of people that boycotted the inauguration.

I did not watch it myself.

I do also know that some people was mad because it fell on Martin Luther King's birthday.

Of course, I heard the this would have been perfect if Kamala Harris would have won because of the day that it is.

Now, what I want you guys to understand about Martin Luther King Day is this.

It is not a day that came easy or free.

His monument certainly was not free.

If you guys go look over that, we as a black people had to fight for Martin Luther King's birthday.

The black Americans did start that.

There was a number of white Americans, there's a number of Asians and a number of other nationalities that joined in to get this done.

But it was a few years, I want to say, between two and five years of commercials of.

Do you want to donate?

To get the monument made, they had to raise X amount of money.

Don't quote me on this.

It's been a long time already, but I think it's like 50% or so that they had to raise before the government would even consider putting in the rest.

So when you go to see Martin Luther King's monument, that is down from the Lincoln Memorial.

Don't even think that the government is by their own free will.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Was so great.

They gave him this monument.

No, that was a lot of perseverance on black Americans to get that done.

And he deserved to have that.

Now, there's other monuments in Atlanta that's not far down from Ebenezer Baptist Church, which is the church that he was over.

You know, they're beautiful monuments of just running water that's coming down.

I tell you guys.

All that to say this since Martin Luther King was around and before he died and after.

It has been a struggle when it comes to African Americans in the 40 years.

Now, Martin Luther King Jr.

Would have been 96 years old this year.

So I want to take this number.

His day has only been around for 40 years.

In 40 years, his celebration day has only coincided with the president's inauguration.

Now, three times, believe it happened when Obama was sworn in.

It happened once when Clinton was sworn in.

And now when Donald Trump is here, here's the encouragement I'm going to give you guys.

The time for what could have happened is over.

The time for what took place in November is done.

The time for.

We feel that the election was rigged.

I'm just gonna call it a spade, a spade.

We, a lot of us, not just black people, a lot of scholars, a lot of staticians, a lot of white people that I know feel that it's rigged.

And I know Trump is.

Oh, it was a joke.

It was no joke.

He actually just stood up at one of his rallies, admitted that, in fact, the election was rigged.

We can't do anything about that now.

All we can do as a people is stick together.

And there's a lot of racism that is here.

There's a lot of racism that is coming.

It's always funny to me.

People tell me to go back to where I came from, came from here.

Your ancestors, if you're white, ended that for me when they put my ancestors on a boat and drug us over here from Africa.

I'm 52, never been to Africa a day in my life.

But my ancestors is the one that built this beautiful place called America, that White House that now only one black person has lived up underneath.

Donald Trump's going to sleep up under that mug starting tonight and all the other presidents.

It was built by the hands of African Americans.

And that building still stands better than many other buildings does.

So know your culture, know your history.

I can only tell you mine because they want to end critical race theory.

What that means is anything that opposes what the white man believes is, quote, unquote, unharmful.

They want to.

They want to remove it.

I've heard things like, young white kids is feeling guilty because of slavery, and they shouldn't have to look at that, okay, well, young black kids shouldn't have to go read a book about the King.

And when you open it up, the first thing you see is an old black woman getting hosed down by a fireman because he was racist.

See how that works in tandem?

I just got through watching the Martin Luther King celebration that was held at Ebenezer Baptist Church by way of the King Center.

Dr.

King and Coretta Scott King's youngest daughter, Dr.

Bernice King, runs that place, and she gave a very good sermon.

So all I could tell you for encouragement is this.

Whether you voted for Donald Trump, whether you didn't, I don't know whether you're happy, whether you sad.

We as America now has to stick together to make sure our democracy and humanity stays where we wanted to as Americans.

There is now a lot of people that voted for Trump that is now regretting it.

They're now seeing where it's going.

I read tweets all day about it.

I watch YouTube videos all day about it.

There's a number of divorces.

Problem is, you can't change your vote if you wanted to.

All we can do is stand up in the face of Donald Trump if he does everything that he says that he's going to do.

Now, to his credit, we don't know this yet, right?

We are just now day one, starting on Tuesday.

Tom Holman has already sworn he's going to Chicago to march out and start deporting people.

So I can say, let's sit back and see what's going to happen.

But in the case that these things do happen, you have to hold on to your humanity, your dignity and your faith, because as a Christian, I believe this.

Nothing he can do to me.

There's a God that I serve that says high looks low.

There's a God that controls everything Donald Trump does.

And sometimes people mistake God for being an evil God, because why would you let these happens?

Read your Bible.

The Bible's already told you all of these things are going to take place, down to the letter where we are right now, even down to the pandemic.

If you want to read deep enough, he's already told you that he's by your side the whole time.

But that trial and tribulations has to happen.

So for me, I stand tall on my Christian belief.

I stand tall on the fact that there is a God that says high looks low.

And I stand tall on the fact that Donald Trump can't do nothing to me or any of us or anybody if you have that belief.

So I'm not a political channel.

A lot of political people you can go listen to.

I can recommend some for you, but all I can tell you is just hold on.

Let's see what happens.

Let's fight the fights that we need to fight.

Let's let the ones go that we don't.

If he does everything that he says that he's going to do, in my opinion, I think we only have to last this out for the remaining of 2025, because in 2026 it is the primaries.

And if he does do what he says he's going to do, then I think that you're going to see control of the Senate and the government as a whole will change back into Democratic hands where he will be shackled.

We'll see if he learned anything from 2020, but I don't know.

Okay, so that's all I can tell you guys.

That's all I wanted to say.

I'm not gonna get over political, but let's just see what happens.

And if it does happen, no matter what color you are, white people, black people, Asian people, Indian people, no matter what, sexual orientation, gay, straight, lesbian, transgender.

We're going to have to have to all stick together to make sure that all of us still have equal rights and can still live in this place that we call America.

The home of the free, the land of the brave.

All right, so that's all for this episode for today.

I want to thank you for joining me as I unravel the fascinating story of Michael Larson and the pressure luxe scandal.

Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review and if there's a story you would like me to cover, send me a message.

And as always, I know you have many choices in True crime and interview podcast.

I am grateful that for the last three years almost now that you've chosen me and you have been listening to the only three faceted podcast of its kind.

Be good to yourself and each other.

And always remember, always stay humbled.

An act of kindness can make someone's day.

A little love and compassion can go a long way.

And remember that there is an extraordinary person in all of us.

I'll catch you guys on the next one.

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