Alberto Guerra’s Master (and Clumsy) Heist: Inside the Audacious Real-Life Scam Behind ‘How to Win the Lottery’

“I’m a gambler, always dreaming of winning. I spend my life fantasizing about what I’d do if I hit the jackpot.”

This confession from Rodrigo Santos, the creator of the new Netflix series, How to Win the Lottery, is the perfect starting point. It’s a universal feeling. Who hasn’t mentally spent their lottery winnings? But the series isn’t about winning; it’s about a man “tired of always losing” who decides to take a monumental shortcut.

The fictional series follows José Luis Conejera, played by Alberto Guerra. Conejera is an “ordinary civil servant” who, after years of dreaming of being a race car driver, finds himself trapped in a life he never wanted. He lives with his girlfriend Laura and her teenage daughter, Karen, who, ironically, aspires to follow in his footsteps.

The “economic pressure” and, perhaps more importantly, the constant “humiliations from his boss, Alfredo Tarto,” a corrupt bureaucrat, push him to the edge. Instead of just buying tickets, Conejera devises a plan as simple as it is brilliant to steal the jackpot: 160 million pesos.

The Plan: How to Fake a Live Drawing (Based on True Events)

What makes this premise so magnetic is that it’s not entirely fiction. The series is based on a “real scandal,” an “unbelievable fraud” that rocked the Mexican Lottery, specifically the Melate drawing, back in 2012.

The true story is, frankly, pure screenwriting material. This wasn’t an armed robbery, but a technical and media-savvy deception.

The fraud was executed by the “lottery draw operators” themselves. The modus operandi was impressively audacious: they dared to “broadcast a pre-produced recording with the winning results during the live Melate transmission.” To simulate the legitimacy of the draw, they superimposed the recorded images over the real-time feed.

Before this fake broadcast aired, the family and friends of those involved bought tickets with the numbers that, thanks to the recording, they knew would be the “winners.”

The plan was ingenious, but the follow-through was clumsy. It all fell apart hours later. The fraud “was uncovered after the attempt to collect the prizes, which raised suspicions.” This true story isn’t about criminal masterminds, but about “ordinary people,” as the creator notes, “minor cogs in a corrupt machine” who tried to beat the system.

The Anatomy of the Adaptation: From Scandal to Thriller

Turning this event into a six-episode miniseries requires a clear vision. The creative team describes the tone as a “fusion of comedy and tragedy,” a thriller where the protagonists are not elite criminals. It’s a dark comedy about unbridled ambition and everyday corruption.

The official trailer, in fact, shows Guerra in an intense role, capable of alternating “between charisma and explosive anger,” with high-tension scenes during the drawing that promise unexpected twists.

Perhaps the most intriguing creative decision is where it was filmed. Despite being an intrinsically Mexican story, the series was shot for months at Auriga Studios, located in Hervás (Cáceres), Spain. In this location, Netflix “built almost an entire city.”

This choice suggests the series isn’t aiming for raw documentary realism. By building its own world on a Spanish soundstage, the production moves away from docudrama to create a stylized universe, a sort of moral fable about a “nearly perfect” heist executed by ordinary people.

The Faces of the Heist: The Cast of ‘How to Win the Lottery’

The success of a story about a complex anti-hero depends on its protagonist. Alberto Guerra (known for Griselda and Narcos: México) leads the cast as José Luis Conejera. Alongside him, Ana Brenda Contreras plays Laura Conejera, the protagonist’s girlfriend. The cast is rounded out by recognized talents like Christian Tappan and Andrés Almeida, who plays a character named Mauricio.

But Conejera’s plan doesn’t go unnoticed. Enter Paloma Petra, who plays Katy, the “honest lawyer for the Lottery.” Katy, who is underestimated by the corrupt boss Alfredo Tarto, nearly uncovers the fraud. The plot thickens when a “mysterious car accident” puts her on the trail, launching an investigation that could dismantle everything. This raises the stakes of the fraud into much more dangerous thriller territory.

The cast is completed by Luis Alberti, Jero Medina, Aldo Escalante Ochoa, Jesusa Ochoa, Colombian actress Majo Vargas, Mariana Gajá, and Mercedes Hernández.

Behind the Curtain: The Team Orchestrating the Heist

This project is no small bet. It is a high-caliber co-production between Sony Pictures Television (SPT) Latin America and Dynamo for Netflix.

The central figure is Rodrigo Santos, who serves as creator, showrunner, writer, executive producer, and director. This accumulation of roles suggests a singular authorial vision, ensuring his fascination with the “dream of winning” permeates the entire series.

Santos is not alone in directing; he shares credits with Federico Veiroj, a film director known for The Moneychanger. This combination of a television showrunner and an auteur film director often aims for a cinematic aesthetic on the small screen.

The writing team is completed by César Blanco and Leonor Alejandro. The executive production is robust, with names like Selina Nederhand, Alejandro García, Andrés Calderón, Juliana Flórez Luna, and Mirlanda Torres overseeing the project.

Payday

How to Win the Lottery premieres on Netflix on November 14.