Michael Larson
Press Your Luck contestant
Died when: 49 years 282 days (597 months)Star Sign: Taurus
Paul Michael Larson (May 10, 1949 – February 16, 1999) was an American television game show contestant from Ohio who appeared on the CBS program Press Your Luck in 1984.
Larson is notable for winning US$110,237 (equivalent to $288,000 in 2021) in cash and prizes, at the time the largest one-day total ever won on a game show.
He was able to win by memorizing the patterns used on the Press Your Luck game board.Larson used his cash winnings to pay taxes and invested most of the rest in bad real estate deals.
As a result, he lost all of his winnings within two years of the show's taping.He later fled Ohio while under investigation for fraud.
He was found to be living in Florida when he died of throat cancer at the age of 49.Since his death in 1999, Larson's game has re-aired on television at various times and inspired two Game Show Network documentaries: Big Bucks: The Press Your Luck Scandal in 2003 and Cover Story: The Press Your Luck Scandal in 2018.