VENEZUELA: The Lucky Laundress

The luck of the Widow Concepción Blanco de Herrera hit a hungry low one day last week: she had no money, no food, and seven unfed children crowded with her into a single room. But when she collected $3 owed her for washing clothes, she spent only half for groceries. With the other $1.50 she bought, for the second time in her life, a ticket on the Five-and-Six, Caracas' fabulous betting pool.

Based on the last six races of each Sunday's meeting at the Caracas Hippodrome, the Five-and-Six splits 70% of a huge payoff pot among pickers of all six winners, the rest among pickers of five. The widow and her kids, choosing horses strictly on the poetic ring to their names, (e.g., Guadalupana, Sortilegio), filled in the form. She turned it in with a desperate prayer: "Dear God, help me—and if You can't, may it be the devil who will."

The track reporters wrote later that the races that afternoon were "all upsets—not a favorite came in." But Concepción Herrera & kids, all unknowing, had picked nothing but long shots, and every one a winner. Because no other player had chosen the same six, the whole 70% of the pot reserved for "sixers" went to her. It came to $267,500—the biggest payoff in the history of the Five-and-Six. Days later, she still had only vague notions about what to do with her fortune—except that she was quite determined not to marry again unless she meets a "fellow millionaire."