While many of us might win a small lucky-draw prize here and there, a huge majority of the population will never win a substantially big lottery. This reality still does little to deter the hordes of hopeful lottery buyers who buy up entries to mega lottery events like National Lottery and Euromillions each year.
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As reported by The Sun, the odds that you will pick a winning lottery ticket are near impossible–about 1 in 45 million to be precise! But if you are still set on getting yourself a ticket, the report contains four hacks that could improve your odds of winning.
Pick your game/lottery well
The Sun quotes Lottery Guy whose advice to buyers is that they should carefully consider which game to put their money in. They are quoted as saying,
Games with small jackpots tend to have better odds.
So EuroMillions is 3.1 times harder to win than UK Lotto. That's before you factor in the higher ticket price too.
Researching the different components of a lottery and things such as bonus features could help a player boost their chances.
Note the balls that appear frequently
Balls with different numbers are drawn at random in lotteries. Even with the randomness of a lottery draw, some balls statistically appear more frequently.
As per Danny Waites, data analyst at Embryo Digital, who studied data from UK’s National Lotto, the numbers which appeared most frequently across the lottery draws were: 38 with 407 appearances, followed by 23 with 392 times, and 31, 11, 45 and 25 following along in decreasing order of appearances.
Note the balls drawn least
Contrary to the above point, some experts think that choosing numbers which are not that common could boost chances of winning. The report quotes Luke Cope, odds expert at AceOdds.com, as saying,
The most common lottery balls are the least likely to be chosen by players because people typically believe that choosing uncommon or unique numbers will increase their chances of winning.
This belief is not necessarily true, however, because every lottery ball has an equal chance of being chosen, regardless of how common or uncommon it is.
Buying more tickets for the same draw
This is a simple way to improve your chances of winning. This is where syndicates help people get more tickets at the same cost. Syndicates can be made with friends and colleagues as well as joined online.
However, it is necessary to remember the odds against you ever winning a lottery. Hence, any money you spend should be only as big as you are comfortable letting go of. Lottery purchase should not be viewed as an investment, and should only be used as a source of thrill and fun.
Sources used:
The Sun: ‘Our ways to boost your chances of winning the National Lottery and Euromillions’
