Everyone knows the lotto, and almost everyone has played it. But did you know that there are techniques to increase your chances of winning? Of course, I don’t guarantee that you will hit the jackpot, but statistically, these techniques have been proven to work.
- Here's the program
- What is lotto?
- What are the tricks to increase your chances of winning the lotto?
- Conclusion
- EcoTips
- Pros and Cons
- Information recap
Disclaimer: The accuracy and relevance of the information in this article may vary depending on the country you live in.
What is lotto?
For those who just landed on Earth, the lotto is a game of chance organized under the control of the state, which consists of guessing the numbers that will come out during a draw broadcast on national television and which allows players to win very large sums of money. To play the game, all you have to do is mark a certain number of boxes on a grid, and if those same numbers come up in the draw, you’re a millionaire.
The number of boxes displayed on the grid, the maximum number of boxes you can tick, and the number of weekly draws vary from country to country. In the US for example, the Powerball grids has 69 + 26 boxes, you can tick 5 + 1 boxes, and there are 3 draws per week (Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday at night) during which 5 + 1 numbers are drawn. Be aware that the rules change from one state to another in the US, this article will tell you more if you want to.
In the UK, you can pick 6 numbers from 1 to 59, up to 7 lines of numbers on each play slip, and buy up to 10 slips at a time. There are 2 draws per week: Wednesday and Saturday. Well, I’m not going to give you all the countries. I guess you know now what it’s all about, you aliens.
What are the tricks to increase your chances of winning the lotto?
Be careful. I am not talking about the magic techniques that can be found on the Internet and that sometimes guarantee you to win for sure. Besides, if you happen to come across this kind of ad, be sure that once you click on the link; you will be quickly invited to pay for a book, a training course or sometimes even an amulet supposed to bring you luck.
Also beware of “martingales”, which consist of always playing more money after a loss, as statistically they are more likely to lead to losses than to allow you to win. There is also a theory that 70% of jackpots are won when the sum of the numbers on the grid is between 104 and 176, but again, this is just a theory.
Of course, we all wish that there were miracle methods that would guarantee that we would hit the right numbers, but there is no such thing. In fact, it does exist, but it implies playing as many grids as there are combinations. This number varies according to each country, but most of the time, it is over several tens of millions of combinations! So, you can imagine the colossal amount of money that has to be invested, without counting the number of people that would be necessary to fill in all these forms. Some people have tried.
So, without further ado, let’s take a look at the tricks because yes, they are more tricks than techniques, which will allow you to put more chances on your side to win this famous Grail.
1Should you trust statistics to win the lottery?
Let’s start with that because it is the question that comes up most often. There are three types of players: First, there are those who always play the same numbers, which often have a symbolic or emotional value for them (date of birth of a child, car registration, fetish numbers, etc.), then there are those who prefer to analyze the numbers drawn in the previous draw before making their choice, and finally those who tick the boxes of a grid completely at random.
So, what is the right method? If we consider that the game is not rigged and that all the balls in the draw are exactly the same (weight and shape), the answer is: none, since the chances that one or the other combination will come out remain exactly the same.
One might think that the more time passes, the greater the chances of winning by continuing to play the same numbers. Well, yes, because if we assume that the same combination has almost no chance of coming up twice, we would have to subtract the number of times you play from the number of possible combinations.
Let’s say you have been playing the same numbers for 10 years, 3 times a week. You will have played 1560 draws (3 draws x 52 weeks x 10 years), which is to be subtracted from, let’s say 200 million possible combinations! So, 0.001% over 10 years! This is a theory that I myself adhered to for a long time, but it hasn’t made sense since. Once again, all combinations are possible during each draw.
Another belief is that statistics show that some numbers come up more often than others. This is true, but it is over a period of time. Change the time period and the result will be different. No matter what happens, the numbers will never all come out evenly, so the same number of times because there are invariably some that will come out more than others over a given period, but this is just pure randomness.
So, since statistics won’t help you, in order not to have to torture your mind about which numbers to choose, and in order not to blame yourself if your numbers ever lose, you can simply choose to let a machine decide the combination for you (automatic ticket, flash lottery, etc.). This system is very convenient and increasingly used.
2Play regularly
The best and only real way to increase your chances of winning is to play as often as possible and buy multiple tickets (within your means of course). Alternatively, you may choose to skip certain draws to keep within your budget and choose to play on days when the prize pools are larger, especially on Fridays the 13th and other symbolic dates when the prize pools reach their peak.
Beware of gambling addictions!
Every year, hundreds of people fall into some form of gambling addiction, sometimes severe, which causes them great psychological distress and serious money problems, so much so that it is not uncommon for some to end up homeless. So, before it gets to that point, if you feel that this is happening to you, here is the link to the help centers for the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. For the others, a little Internet research will help you find them quickly.
3Playing in a group
About 20% of jackpots are won by groups/unions of players. By playing in a group, the pooled funds allow you to buy more tickets, and therefore, increase your chances of winning. However, there is a risk of being betrayed with this technique.
It is essential to find fellow gamblers who you can trust completely because the amounts won are sometimes so huge that some people literally break down and run away with the cash. There are many such stories that usually end up in court, so be careful and make sure you have one or more witnesses, or proof that you participated, at each of the draws.
4Choose the lotteries where the chances of winning are highest
Not all “big” lotteries have the same chances of winning: For example, in France, the chances of winning the lottery jackpot are 1 in 19,068,840 while they are 1 in 1,139,838,160 for the EuroMillions. Similarly, not all national lotteries have the same odds: The US Powerball, which is played in 45 US states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, has a 1 in 292,201,338 chance of winning the jackpot while the odds in the Swedish lottery are 1 in 6,724,520, and 1 in 15,503 in the Trinidad & Tobago Islands.
So, if you can choose the one that gives you the best chance, don’t hesitate! It is better to have more chances to win less than less chances to win more. Note that often, the more populated the country, and therefore the more players, the smaller your chances of winning, but the larger the amounts at stake.
5Choose local lotteries over national lotteries
If you want to play and not come away empty-handed, the best option is to choose local lotteries over national ones. Of course, the amount of money or prizes involved in these smaller lotteries is much smaller than what you could win in the national lotteries, but you are more likely to win something.
6How to get bigger wins
While there is no sure way to win the lottery, there are a few tricks you can use to try to increase the amount of money you can win. The way the lottery works is that if more than one person has the winning numbers, they have to share the jackpot. So, if you play numbers that other people didn’t play, and those numbers all come up in the draw, you don’t have to share them!
To do this, make sure you don’t play the most common numbers: Numbers between 1 and 30, which correspond to birth dates, and numbers 1, 9 and 19, which correspond to the birth years of most participants, are the most commonly played. The numbers 7 and 13 are also very common. It is also interesting to note that participants generally prefer to use the smaller numbers and that the least played numbers are the highest.
Another way to increase your winnings is to play a multiple grid (if available in your country). This grid costs more but multiplies your chances of winning. In the same logic, the “Power Play” or “Joker”, whose mechanism and name vary according to each country, also allows you to increase your winnings.
7Trust in chaos
Chaos is the other name for randomness, although Jeff Goldblum had an interesting theory about it in Jurassic Park. The goal is to mimic this chaos. So if you prefer to choose your own numbers, avoid for example playing only odd or even numbers. And also avoid mixing them systematically in a homogeneous way. Sometimes choose more even numbers than odd, and vice versa.
And above all, don’t place a number in each ten as many players do (like 3, 17, 28, 34, 45), but rather play two numbers in the same ten (21, 26) or even in a row (44, 45). Homogeneity is the opposite of chaos, even if chaos generates some homogeneity too, sometimes.
Conclusion
So, what can we learn from all this? Well, first of all, there is no miracle technique to win the lottery, despite what you may read on some websites. The best way to win is to play as often as possible to increase the odds. But be careful not to fall into the trap of addiction because it can happen to anyone, and it is sometimes very difficult to get out.
By playing in a reasonable way every week, and by following the few tips I have given you here, you should win at least small amounts from time to time, but unfortunately nothing can guarantee that you win the jackpot. Never forget that the lottery is just a game where you have a very small chance of winning a lot of money. And if your goal is just to win money quickly enough, there are other ways to do it.
EcoTips
Environmental and climate change issues are more than ever at the heart of the concerns of this 21st century, which is why I am proposing a few ideas that will enable you to limit the negative impact that the implementation of this idea could have.
These solutions that I suggest are sometimes largely insufficient to compensate for these negative impacts, such as carbon offsetting. Unfortunately, there is not always an ideal and 100% efficient solution, far from it. And if you have others, please do not hesitate to share them in the comments below.
Compared to other types of online games, such as casino or sports betting, lotto is certainly the most virtuous game in terms of environmental impact. Indeed, the websites allowing to play online are also hosted on energy consuming servers, but they are globally less numerous and much less solicited (most of the time, the player spends only a few minutes on the platform).
And this game is much more ethical than the others since a part of the profits made on the sale of the lotto tickets is donated to charity projects.
Pros
- A simple and easy game that only takes a few minutes a week to play.
- You have a chance to become a millionaire!
Cons
- You have one chance in millions to become a millionaire!
- Risk of addiction
Info
- Location: From your home, via the website, or at the drugstore, gas station, or grocery store.
- Investment: Low to moderate. If it is high for you, start to worry.
- Earnings perspective: The jackpot of several tens, even hundreds of millions, but more generally a few dozen dollars from time to time.
- Required: Do not succumb to the sirens of gambling.
- Risk level: Low to moderate, depending on your wagering.
- Implementation time: Very fast
- Material needed: A smartphone
You can also Login or Register to comment