Fairfield University statistics professor wins lottery, turns it into lesson

FAIRFIELD, Connecticut (WABC) -- A professor from Connecticut who lectures about odds has beaten them by winning the lottery. Now, he's turning into a lesson for the entire class.

"Somebody can beat the odds, especially when teaching about them," said Nicholas Kapoor, who teaches statistics at Fairfield University.

And while his day consists of using math solutions to find the probability of say, winning the lottery, he's now living the real-life chances. He recently won $100,000 in the Powerball drawing.

"I think luck definitely had a part in it," he said.

He said his winnings have created a great way to demonstrate for his students how hard it is to win something in the real world.

"We get scratch cards for our birthdays, Christmas, and sometimes we play an occasional Powerball ticket," he said. "So what better way to show the students than with a real-life example than go through the odds of winning the Powerball and winning the different combinations."

But even though he won, he reminds them that the probability of winning themselves isn't very high.

"It's hard to go into the classroom again to tell the students, here's a piece of paper and it's a one-in-a-million shot you're going to win," he said. "And then you're the person that wins."

He also plans to continue playing the lottery.

"Probably keep doing my one ticket a week and scratch tickets," he said. "When your pumping your gas and you feel lucky, we'll see what happens."