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film · Monday 31 August 2026 · 8:00pm 
Beat the Lotto - Irish Documentary - Triskel Cork
At Triskel Christchurch · Tobin Street, Cork City, Co. Cork
At Triskel Christchurch · Tobin Street, Cork City, Co. Cork
If you have ever wondered whether the Irish National Lottery could actually be beaten by someone clever enough, this documentary answers that question in the most entertaining way possible. Beat the Lotto is a true-story Irish film directed by Ross Whitaker that follows Stefan Klincewicz, a Cork mathematician who in the early 1990s identified a flaw in the lottery’s odds structure and hatched a plan to buy every single ticket combination for one bank-holiday draw - guaranteeing a jackpot win. It screens at Triskel Christchurch in Cork City from 31 August to 3 September 2026, and it is the kind of story that sounds too strange to be real until you see the archive footage.
The scheme was audacious in its simplicity and almost absurd in its scale. Klincewicz calculated that purchasing every possible number combination would, despite the enormous outlay, still return a profit. He then recruited a ragtag group of friends and family to fill in almost 12 million little boxes by hand - a task that took a year. The plan began to unravel when a syndicate member walked into a shop and tried to buy 70,000 euros worth of tickets in one go, tipping off the National Lottery authorities. Whitaker structures the story like a caper thriller, using archive footage and interviews to build genuine suspense around what actually happened. Critics have called it “an irresistible crowd-pleaser” and “a wildly entertaining underdog tale.” For Cork audiences, there is an added layer of pride and recognition in seeing the city at the centre of such a peculiarly Irish story.
Triskel Christchurch sits on Tobin Street, just off South Main Street in Cork City centre - a short walk from Patrick Street and the city’s main bus stops. Bus Eireann and Aircoach routes connect Cork to Dublin, Limerick, and Galway, with Kent Station handling intercity rail. From the station, the venue is around a 15-minute walk or a short taxi. Street parking in the city centre is metered; the Dunnes Stores car park on Paul Street and the Lavitts Quay multi-storey are the most convenient options for drivers.
Triskel itself is worth arriving early for - it has a café downstairs and an art gallery space, and the building is a refurbished neoclassical Georgian church that is striking in its own right. There is more to see in Cork and across Co. Cork.
Heading to Triskel Christchurch in Cork? Cork has plenty more to see. Read the Cork area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.