We’ve all read the news about the latest Powerball and Mega Millions lottery winners, filled with awe and envy. “Lucky bastich,” we murmur, along with other nicknames we picked up from Johnny Dangerously.
However, whether we are lucky or not, we all take the occasional flyer on a lottery ticket. It’s just cheap fantasy fuel. We get days to idle for a buck or two, fantasizing about our lordly generosity after the big win. And when our ticket doesn’t win in the drawing, we just shrug and move on.
We are rarely discouraged, and we quickly buy another ticket. And, over time, we’ll develop the skills and strategies that will propel us closer to our goal.
I suppose you, like me, don’t have time to learn from our mistakes and would rather know how to win the lottery right now. Here are ten tips to help you improve your lottery winning strategy—tips that will help you reduce the odds to something your dreams can achieve.
Be extremely fortunate
The first tip on my list of lottery winning strategies is to be lucky. You did see this one coming, didn’t you?
The lottery, like all games of chance, is based on chance. So the best strategy for winning the lottery is to be lucky. Unfortunately, none of us have any control over our luck.
What we can control is the odds at which we gamble. As a result, the rest of my lottery winning tips are a little more proactive (and certainly more useful) than “be very lucky.”
When you gamble online, the story may be a little different. Simply follow the rabbit hole in this breakdown to determine whether online casinos are pure luck or not.
Calculate the Odds
The odds for various lotteries vary. Although it may seem obvious, there are numerous lower-level lotteries that, while not offering Powerball money, do offer life-changing prizes.
Would you turn down $250,000 if you knew you could win a multimillion-dollar Powerball jackpot?
I’d gladly take that dreadful quarter-million dollars off your hands. No, please do not thank me. What I do is relieve the burden of another gambler.
Anyway, back to the varying odds.
Your home state is an excellent place to begin your search. A quick search of US gambling laws should reveal whether your state allows lotteries and whether it sponsors them.
Also Read: Ways Ways to Enjoy Playing Online Games
To be honest,
You have a good chance of discovering that your state has a lottery—45 states in the Union have a state lottery.
State lotteries, on average, will have better odds than multi-state behemoths like Mega Millions and Powerball.
These lotteries have some large payouts, and the even better news is that the odds of winning one of these “smaller” lotteries are much better than the lottery’s Godzilla and Mothra.
New Hampshire, for example, has operated a state lottery since 1964. It also joins Maine and Vermont in offering the Tri-State Megabucks lottery. The $1-2 million payout isn’t as large as the big fish’s 8-figure prizes, but you’re also not competing against 300 million other people for a chance to win it.
Choosing a smaller number can sometimes be the key to winning the lottery.
So don’t dismiss smaller lotteries or even genuine online scratch-offs. Sure, scratch-offs rarely offer life-changing prizes, but they can teach you the patience required to play the lottery while also putting money in your pocket.
Don’t Play Your Birthday
Do you want to know how to win the lottery? Don’t juggle birth dates. At least, not if you only buy one lottery ticket. Why? Because the numbers will always be a subset of the smallest possible set of lottery numbers.
For example, 1-12 represent the month you were born, and no month has more than 31 days, limiting your options to about 22. (remember, you already used up one of those numbers with your month number).
Similarly, don’t give your firstborn your mother’s birthday, your anniversary, or the date of birth.
Because some numbers appear on lottery tickets, all dates artificially limit your lottery selections.
The majority of lotteries use balls numbered 1 to 69. (or 70, as in the case of Mega Millions). The lottery selects five (or six) balls from these numbers to become the week’s winning numbers. And chances are, at least one of those numbers isn’t found in anyone’s birth date.
Select Random Numbers
Now that you know not to choose your birthday, you’re probably wondering, “How should I choose my lottery numbers?”
Consider the lottery to be a keno game, which it is. In fact, keno was designed to be similar to the lottery. Lottery numbers, like keno numbers, are chosen at random. Sure, two or three consecutive numbers will occasionally appear, but have you ever seen six consecutive numbers appear during a lottery drawing?
The best online casinos provide keno and scratch-off games with quick picks, which are a novel and entertaining way to generate random numbers for our lottery ticket purchases.
Before you start playing keno, read our keno strategy breakdown for useful tips that could help you win.
That, or simply prepare to play the game for real money right now.
Consider Volume
How to Win the Lottery is primarily concerned with reducing the absurdly high odds against that very thing. So, once you’ve gained more experience and confidence in picking your numbers, consider doing the same thing more than once a week.
Each one-of-a-kind lottery ticket you buy will reduce the astronomical odds offered by the big lotteries—and may even improve your chances on the smaller state lotteries.
You could also think about joining a syndicate
I’m not talking about wise guys or Goodfellas here. I’m referring to a group of people—possibly family members, friends, or even coworkers—who all agree to contribute a set amount toward purchasing whatever number of lottery quick-picks the group decides on.
Sure, any winnings must be shared with the rest of the group, but most of us don’t mind splitting a $37 million prize with ten or fifteen others.
Discover a Way to Game the System
What is my lottery winning strategy? Cheat. I was joking. Since I’m assuming your goal is to strike it rich and have plenty of money to buy everything you want, cheating is definitely out.
Why? Because you will be discovered.
Furthermore, lotteries, particularly state-run lotteries (where the big money is), are closely monitored.
Sure, there have been some extremely rare cases in which someone beat the odds by “fixing” the system, but we know about these exceptions because they were all discovered.
Cheating any complex system involving many people necessitates Ocean’s Eleven-level planning and execution. Unless you’re Brad Pitt, you’re probably better off buying a lottery ticket and crossing your fingers like the rest of us. Furthermore, Brad Pitt only succeeded in those films because it was written into the script.
Think about Scratch-Offs
This was separated from the “consider the odds” advice because it requires special consideration. You can also use scratch-offs to practice some of the other strategies mentioned here.
Scratch-off tickets are similar to miniature lottery tickets. And, while they do not offer nearly as much money as Powerball or even a state lottery, they do provide many more chances to win something.
Furthermore, they provide immediate gratification (or instant despair, as the case may be). You scratch off the opaque masking with a coin to reveal the amounts under each one, and that’s pretty much how you win the lottery scratch off.
Three instances of any single amount usually means you’ve won that amount. Even better, the vendor will usually pay your winnings immediately.
Below are some of the best ways to play scratch-off tickets.
Use a Quick-Pick When in Doubt
You may have noticed that lottery numbers are chosen at random (for no other reason than I’ve said so many times).
So, a good lottery strategy is to pick your numbers in the same way every time: To generate your lottery numbers, use some method of random number generation.
Darts could be a good idea, but some people are very good at darts and could easily skew the “randomness” of their selections with skillful dart tosses. No, the best method is to locate a random number generator.
An online keno game could be a cheap and enjoyable way to generate random numbers. Find a keno machine that accepts the smallest bet and press the quick-pick button. Voila. Numbers at random.
Stick to the numbers you chose the last time
How does one go about winning the lottery? Just keep the same numbers. If your numbers did not win this week, you will have a bad feeling about them and may be tempted to change them for next week’s drawing. Don’t. Maintain the same numbers.
Best Advice
In fact, I’d advise you to stick with the same numbers until they win something.
The win might only be $1, but it’s enough to warrant a change. Of course, the gambler’s fallacy emphasizes that the likelihood of a random event occurring is not dependent on historical evidence.
In this case, the chances of this week’s winning lottery numbers occurring again next week are exactly the same as they were this week.
Play Responsibly
The best lottery winning advice I can give is the advice we all know but too often disregard.
As previously stated, one of the first things you should do before playing the lottery is to create a budget for your play.
A hundred dollars per week seems excessive (at least to me), but you might not mind losing that much every week. If you play other types of gambling, such as slots or table games, your lottery budget is included.
If you can lose $50 per week gambling safely, adding the lottery to your gambling budget does not increase that budget.
But keep playing once you’ve established your “safety zone” for lottery spending. Remember that nice guy who gave you all those wonderful tips that helped you bank all those millions of dollars when you win big.
