“How to Win the Lottery” (Me late que si) is based on real-life events that took place in Mexico in 2012. The series is a dramatized version of the events. It starts with a former racer, Jose, who wants to fulfil his dreams through his daughter, Karen. Jose works at a lottery company where his boss, Tarto, is prone to making corrupt financial decisions.
Furthermore, Tarto constantly insults Jose. At the same time, Mauricio, the one in charge of the racing teams, also insults Jose, giving him the idea of winning the lottery fraudulently, which will allow him to resign and start a team to encourage Karen to participate in bigger races. To do this, Jose needs a team as it isn’t a one-person job. Thankfully, Jose finds the team at work, as each team member is struggling in their own way and could use the money. This fraud shook Mexico.
This article contains spoilers.
How To Win The Lottery (TV Series 2025) Episode 1, “The Golden Goose” Recap:
The episode opens with Jose Luis telling Lina and others that D-day has arrived. If they all do what needs to be done, then they will break even. All his life, Jose Luis has felt unlucky, and he is fed up. Subsequently, we see Lina announcing the lottery numbers. If the plan goes smoothly, they will win 160 million pesos. Three months prior, Jose cheered for her daughter Karen as she finished first in Kart racing. Mauricio asks Jose to let Karen compete in the big leagues, as she is talented. At a café, Karen asks Jose if he can predict lottery numbers based on trends and patterns. However, Jose says it’s impossible, but he does it as he likes numbers and statistics.
Just as Jose is leaving, his wife, Laura, arrives at the café. Laura asks Jose to buy David Silver’s magic show tickets without fail. Turns out, Jose works for the company that hosts the lottery shows. Right now, Jose is nervous as Lina has not arrived yet, and the plan will not be successful without her. Thankfully, Lina arrives just in time.
After the show, Tarto (Jose’s cunning boss) asks Jose to arrange for David Silver’s magic show tickets, as his wife loves the guy. In a flashback, we see that Jose was also a car racer. In one match, Jose tries to manoeuvre the car in a risky way to win, but ends up in the hospital. From that day, Jose has not been able to race. At the track, Mauricio asks Jose to pay 6 million pesos to put Karen in the Mexico challenge. Mauricio gives Jose until Friday to arrange for money; otherwise, Mauricio will pick another racer for the challenge.
What happens between Jose and Tarto?
At home, Laura asks Jose not to get Karen’s hopes up about the challenge. Jose says he has a plan, and if it works, then Jose can buy an entire league, not just let Karen compete. At the office, Jose proposes a strategy to change the sponsorship program. So, Tarto asks Jose to prepare the documents as he trusts Jose.
After doing some research, Jose suggests that they sponsor female athletes across sports. Since Jose has a deadline, he urges Tarto to make a decision immediately and sign the contract. That night, Jose gives Laura two VIP tickets for David Silver’s show. The next day, Jose gets a legal advisor’s signature on the contracts and meets Mauricio. Unfortunately, Tarto is in a hurry for a meeting, so he does not sign the contracts but asks for David Silver’s show tickets. Jose heads home, brings the VIP tickets, and gives them to Tarto, who then signs the contracts.
Thrilled, Jose meets Mauricio and gives him the contract to sign for the money to be processed. Now, Mauricio gives Jose a helmet for Karen. That night, Jose and Laura attended a party hosted by Tarto. Before going in, Jose gets a call from Mauricio that the contract is cancelled. When Jose confronts Tarto, he says he used some funds from the agreement to support a politician for the next presidential campaign.
This makes Jose furious, and before leaving, he breaks a vase in anger. At home, Laura supports Jose for standing up to Tarto, as Tarto has taken advantage of Jose always, and now he disrespects Jose. Furthermore, Laura calls Jose a golden goose, which gives him an idea to steal the golden goose (cheat/rig the lottery system).
How To Win The Lottery (TV Series 2025) Episode 2, “In the Same Boat” Recap:
The episode opens with Lina and her friend at a bar meeting with Mr.Chang. The reason is that Lina wants a fake passport and documents for her and her son, as she wants to leave the country immediately. Three months earlier, Jose was at home, where Laura says she liked how Jose was during the party. Furthermore, Laura asks Jose not to be a pushover and stand up to Tarto.
If Tarto crosses a line, then Laura asks Jose to quit. At the office, Tarto asks Jose to move funds intended for orphanages, single moms, hospitals, etc. When Jose disagrees, Tarto gives an ultimatum: either do the job or get fired. At home, Jose googles how to hack the lottery system and build a raffle box. Meanwhile, Jose also visits the TEXEC office, where Jose learns that 30 minutes before the lottery announcement, the system shuts down and they can’t print new tickets.
Furthermore, two servers have copies of the tickets. If there is any change, even a single one, the system shuts down. So, the system cannot be hacked. While researching, Jose learns the correct weight for the ping-pong ball to ensure the raffle works. On the kart track, Jose asks Mauricio what he would do if Jose paid double the amount. However, Mauricio does not take Jose seriously and talks about schedules and rules. So, Jose says, with money, anything can be changed.
Why can’t Karen compete?
Still, Mauricio asks Jose to give up on Karen becoming a car racer. In the office, Jose checks out of the raffle boxes when he overhears Lina fighting with her ex-husband. As they talk, Lina says all she needs is money to leave with her son. At home, Jose is still unable to rig the raffle box he built. A while later, Laura tells Jose that she misses the old Jose who would take risks. In a basketball court, Tarto asks Jose to open fake companies in his name to move the funds. Although Jose is unwilling, he agrees in the end.
At home, Jose manages to rig the raffle system he built, so he is happy. Later, Jose meets Charly, who has the keys to the raffle box. Now, Jose says he wants to shoot behind the scenes of how the lottery system works, and one day he hopes Charly can give Jose the key to do the shooting. However, Charly says Tarto has tried to ask for it before, but Charly cannot give the keys as the raffle box is important.
This deeply upsets Jose, so he breaks the raffle box he built. The next day, Kathy tells Jose that she wants to audit Tarto, but his records are clean. This means someone is helping Tarto. Jose thinks Kathy suspects him. But when she sees his clothes, she says she knows he isn’t assisting Tarto, since one needs to get something in return to do a dirty job.
Jose meets Tarto, asking for a commission, but Tarto refuses to give one this time. At a bar, Jose tells Laura that she was right to ask him not to raise Karen’s hopes, because he won’t be able to help fulfill her dreams. That night, Jose takes Laura to a magic show (not David Silver). For one set, Jose asks Laura to volunteer. This set involves changing the ping pong’s colour and adding/modifying numbers on it. This gives Jose an idea.
How To Win The Lottery (TV Series 2025) Episode 3, “Everyone Has A Price” Recap:
The episode opens with Charly dealing with a church situation as the pastor has ordered things, but there isn’t enough money to pay the vendors. At the same time, Charly’s father is in the hospital for dialysis. The doctors are not giving the man treatment because the bills aren’t paid. Currently, Jose meets the magician Leo (whose show Laura and Jose watched the previous night) to learn the ping-pong trick.
However, Leo does not reveal how the trick is done. After Jose pays Leo some money, Leo says he can’t do the trick alone; the bigger the audience, the more people are required. Among them, one individual needs to be someone the audience can be distracted by, and Jose needs to be in control, dictating what the audience sees. Furthermore, there will be people who pay extra attention to the trick and need to be dealt with.
How does Jose convince Charly to steal the lottery?
In the office, Jose is distractedly playing with the monitors that show the live telecast. Jose realises he can manipulate what is shown to the audience. So, Jose meets Mario and Gilberto, who are doing infomercials to make money, but they aren’t making enough, nor do they get much respect. They also work in the studio with Jose, as that is their full-time job.
Using this, Jose entices them into working with Jose. Elsewhere, Lina is talking to her son through a fence while working multiple jobs to make money. Now, Jose approaches Lina and brings her on board. The next target is Charly, so Jose visits Charly’s church. There, Jose sees, Charly’s father getting hemodialysis treatment. Using this, Jose tries to convince Charly to join him.
However, Charly says he has faith and morals, so Carly won’t do it. Furthermore, Charly warns Jose that if Jose is caught trying to steal the lottery, he will report Jose. At home, Jose is annoyed, but he helps Karen become the best racer. Later, Jose meets the group to explain about the Charly situation. So they agree to find a way to learn what Charly’s weakness is.
At home, Laura is angry with Jose because, due to Jose, Karen has sold her simulator in an attempt to raise money to help Jose. So, Jose talks to Karen, who says it isn’t just Jose’s dream to be a racer, but it is hers as well. At the office, Kathy (legal department) tells Jose that Charly has booked an appointment with her for the following day.
Jose goes to Charly’s house, where Charly’s father says the pastor helped Charly when he was struggling, but the pastor keeps Charly around like a pet. That night, Jose visits Charly’s church when no one is there. Outside, Jose runs into Mario and Gilbert, who want to scare Charly with a weapon, but Jose has other plans. Inside the church, Jose steals the donations, which will worry the pastor, who then will trouble Charly. Jose sets the church on fire. At home, Laura apologises for yelling at Jose. The next day, the pastor is upset, so Charly agrees to bring the money. Even though it’s unethical, the pastor lets Charly commit sins. The gang is together, and Charly arrives to meet them.
How To Win The Lottery (TV Series 2025) Episode 4, “You Can’t Trick A Trickster” Recap:
The episode opens in the future, eight days after the fraud. Both Mario and Gilbert are on a beach having fun when two goons arrive, demanding the money their cousin, Tito, owes them. Back to the present, Jose tells the group the plan to commit the fraud. The plan is to work extra shifts, especially on Sundays, as there won’t be anyone else in the office.
As usual, Charly will check the raffle box, and Mario and Gilbert need to place the cameras as required. They will pre-record the winning numbers, and on the day of the announcement, Mario and Gilbert will overlap the banner to show the numbers that they want. During that time, Jose will handle Kathy and buy the correct lottery ticket. Lina’s job is to memorize the decided numbers to call out on the day of. The group now needs to find a way to get permission to work extra hours and on Sundays.
During a lottery announcement, there is an issue with the raffle until the last second. However, Charly fixes it. The group gets a perfect opportunity when Tarto yells at them for the mishap. Jose gets Tarto’s permission to work overtime to ensure something like this will never happen again. At home, Lina struggles because she has to work overtime and be away from her son.
Furthermore, Lina is unable to remember the numbers. On the racing track, Jose and Mauricio get into a fight, which worries Karen. So, Karen visits Laura’s workplace to tell her that Jose seems to be unwell. In the dressing room, Lina asks Jose for more money, since she is the face of the plan and the one taking the risks. However, Jose does not give more money.
Why does the group retaliate against Jose?
Later, Lina finds a way to remember the numbers. It is by writing on her hand, and this time she gets it correctly. At the church, the pastor wants to build the church with expensive materials. So Charly asks Jose for more money, but Jose refuses. Meanwhile, Mario and Gilbert want to build a beach club/hotel when they steal the lottery.
The problem is that they also owe money to Tito, and now Tito is also asking for more money to build the beach lodge/club. Charly, Mario, Gilbert, and Lina meet to do this without Jose, as he is taking more money and things are not equal. The plan is to come in early and record things before Jose arrives. Then they all go out to buy the lottery tickets.
They record once more with the numbers Jose wants. On the day off, Lina repeats the number they have agreed to. This way, they decide how much they pay Jose. If Jose wants the money, he will sign the certificates. Later, Jose visits Lina to say he can pay her more, as long as she keeps it a secret. Now, Lina tells Jose that the others want to betray him.
In anger, Jose meets with the group to yell at them. When Lina asks Jose not to ditch the plan, Jose says they have to agree to the original deal or else the plan is off. They have one day to think about it. When Jose gets home, he sees Laura going through Jose’s things. Jose says it’s not about the money, but he is sick and tired of luck not being on his side.
Furthermore, Jose can’t be pushed around by people like Tarto. Instead of being mad, Laura loves the idea, and they make love. The next day, before leaving for work, Laura asks Jose not to underestimate the group and to keep things fair. At the office, Tarto asks Jose to pack up and join him in the presidential campaign. Jose meets the group and tells them they will share everything equally. Now, Jose tells them they have only two days to commit the fraud, as the team will change due to Tarto’s support for the presidential campaign.
How To Win The Lottery (TV Series 2025) Episode 5, “The Perfect Plan” Recap:
The 5th episode of “How to Win the Lottery” opens on the day of the fraud. Right now, Charly gets a blessing from the pastor. Later, the group meets at a café. There, Jose tells them that if he takes off his jacket, it means the plan shouldn’t go through because there is a problem. Even Laura has agreed to help with something. At the studio, the team sets things up.
As the magician said, Lina is dressed in a way that the focus will be on her. Just as they are recording, Victor (Security) arrives to do rounds. So, Jose asks Victor to leave as they are rehearsing. Once Victor leaves, the team records the whole thing in one go. Jose asks for everyone’s phones and puts his into the bag as well. As Jose is leaving, the group says they all leave together to buy the ticket, or no one does. So they place the phone bag with the raffle box and leave to buy tickets.
Will the team be successful in committing the fraud?
Each of them buys multiple tickets, including the winning numbers. During this time, Lina is struggling to remember the numbers. Elsewhere, a car crashes into Kathy, so she won’t be able to arrive at the studio in time. Kathy calls Jose to inform him. Laura is the one who rammed Kathy’s car. Now, Jose meets Lina in the dressing room where she has written the winning numbers on the mirror. So, they get into a fight. Outside, Tarto has arrived, saying he wants to take Lina out on a date.
However, hearing Lina yell at Jose, Tarto backs off, thinking they are dating. In the studio, Jose takes off his jacket, which Charly notices. However, when Tarto says he won’t stay for the raffle, Jose puts the coat back on. Since Lendesma is the auditor and she has a bad leg, they make space for her far away from Lina. Next, they place a monitor so Lendesma can see clearly. They are ready to go live, so Jose meets with Lina and tells her to forget about everything and everyone; the focus should be only on the numbers.
Just before they start, Kathy arrives, so Jose takes off his jacket. No matter what, Kathy is unwilling to leave. So, Charly deliberately hurts himself. To help tend to Charly’s wounds, Kathy takes Charly away. Jose puts his jacket back on, and they go live. Thankfully, Lina says the correct numbers without raising suspicion. The group is now partying in a bar. In the office, Kathy finds a note that reads behind the winning numbers. So, Kathy calls someone asking them to inform her when the winners arrive.
How To Win The Lottery (TV Series 2025) Episode 6, “Behind the Winning Numbers” Recap:
The 6th episode of “How to Win the Lottery” opens in a bar with just the team. Jose asks the group not to cash in the prize for a couple of weeks. Additionally, they need to ask someone else to cash the prize on their behalf and not spend extravagantly as soon as they receive the money, to avoid suspicion. Currently, Lina meets her kid, who says Lina’s ex-husband is planning to take custody of her son. The pastor wants the money, so he pressures Charly.
While Jose talks to Kathy, a man says someone has cashed in the prize money. In anger, Jose meets the boys to find out who did it, but soon realizes it’s Lina. The group now looks for Lina everywhere, but she is not to be found. Similarly, Charly asks the pastor to cash in the prize. Even Mario and Gilbert ask Tito to cash in the prize. Because of this, Jose asks Laura to take the prize money to another place with lower taxes. Laura tells Jose that they can leave the city with that kind of money, but Jose wants Karen to become a racer.
At the studio, Jose tells Kathy there is an issue with Lina’s custody of her kids, hence she won’t return. When a man tells Kathy that the last prize is cashed in from a different place, Kathy starts to get suspicious. Elsewhere, Kathy talks to Pablo from the tech to clarify how often someone cashes in big prizes, as everything seems suspicious to Kathy.
However, Kathy suspects Tarto of creating fraud, mainly because of his nature, and he was present during the raffle, which is unlike him. However, Pablo says his system can’t be hacked. Still, Pablo reveals that all the tickets were bought from the same pharmacy. Kathy visits the pharmacy, and the lady says they were normal-looking people, so she can’t remember their faces. The most peculiar thing about them was that they called out the numbers in sequence to buy the tickets.
On a beach somewhere, Tito, Mario, and Gilbert are celebrating. During this time, Charly helps his father with medical treatments. Finally, Lina gets fake passports for her kid, Sara, and herself. Jose is training Karen for the race. At the studio, Kathy checks the raffle box to see if anything fishy is going on. While reviewing the winner’s data, Kathy recognizes Laura’s face.
Meanwhile, Jose breaks the news to Tarto that he is resigning. This makes Tarto angry, so he threatens to expose Jose for the fraudulent work he did for Tarto. However, Jose says he has set things up so that if he goes down, Tarto will go down too. Kathy tells Jose that she knows something fishy has happened with the last lottery, and she suspects Tarto. So, Jose asks Kathy to stop obsessing as she is losing her mind; the solution is to quit.
How To Win The Lottery (TV Series 2025) Ending Explained:
Later, Kathy confronts Tarto, asking him straight up if he rigged the lottery. Obviously, this irritates Tarto, who is busy packing up. As Tarto puts a photo frame into a box, Kathy notices Laura’s picture. Kathy accuses Tarto of taking help from Laura to rig the lottery. Now, Tarto says Laura is Jose’s wife. The world spins around Kathy as she realises what this means.
Kathy takes legal help, who tells her that the authenticity of the lottery system will be questioned, and sales will drop. Furthermore, if Kathy pursues, then all department heads will be investigated, and Kathy will be blamed for negligence. Kathy looks to her father, who is also a lawyer, for help. The man recommends talking to the media. By now, Kathy has figured out that there’s been foul play with the video.
Soon, Kathy talks to the press, who broadcast the information. The pastor is nowhere to be seen, while Charly is left to deal with the workers. During this time, Lina leaves the city, taking a bus somewhere with her son. Karen is racing, and Jose and Laura are there supporting Karen. The brothers Mario and Gilbert are dealing with the goons because of Tito.
They hear the police siren, so the goons leave, and the brothers are arrested. Even Charly is arrested. Suddenly, Jose notices the cops, so he runs on the track, asks Karen to get down, and he drives the car away. From the bus, Lina calls Jose apologising for leaving without saying goodbye. By then, the cops arrest Jose. In the end, we learn what happened to all the criminals in real life.
Charly spent a few days in jail and broke out, and his father died of kidney failure. Jose has been in and out of jail multiple times. Lina and Sara run a business in the Caribbean. The fraud was considered a minor offence, and all the criminals’ accounts were frozen. However, nobody knows what happened to the money.
Nobody also knows the winning numbers from that night. It is unknown what happened to the story’s protagonists. The makers believe Karen gave up her racing career, Tarto was investigated and found guilty of many charges, and the pastor was arrested in a motel. Despite the threats, Kathy’s name has been cleared. In the end, the criminals were all caught except Lina, as she managed to flee.
We don’t know what happened to Laura and Karen as they were left on the track as Jose ran. Although the series is based on actual events, it is dramatized, and some aspects are speculative. However, the fraud involved recording the winning numbers beforehand. Since many winners cashed their prize from Zacatecas, the auditor started to suspect something was wrong. Most of the money was recovered, but the authorities did count it as a minor offence. The leader, Jose, died in 2023 without facing any serious charges for the crime.
