You already know the odds of winning the lottery aren’t in your favor. You might as well be betting that your children will be identical quadruplets or that you’ll become president of the United States.
Both events are likelier than winning the lottery, so they’d be a safer bet. Then again, you probably won’t find anyone willing to pay a few hundred million dollars if you’re right.
Despite the odds, the lottery is one of the most popular forms of gambling in the United States. In 2016, Americans spent more than $73.5 billion on lottery tickets.
Lottery games draw in masses of players who pick numbers and hope they have the winning ticket, which comes with a massive payout. Many play with lucky numbers or other strategies to try and secure a state lottery win or a Mega Millions jackpot.
The lottery revenue has only increased yearly, so it will likely surpass $100 billion annually soon. With so much money at stake, you can probably see why 45 of the 50 American states offer the lottery.
While most players, regardless of their set of numbers, won’t ever be lottery winners (let alone jackpot winners), this is not necessarily their fault. There is no “How To Win” secret when it comes to the lotto. Nevertheless, nearly 100 million Americans will likely buy lottery tickets next calendar year. If you’re one of them, here are a few things that can help improve your chances of winning.
Is It Possible To Guarantee a Lottery Win?
The internet is full of so-called lottery experts selling books about their secret to winning the jackpot. The irony, of course, is that if their “system” were effective, they wouldn’t need to sell any books. Jackpot prizes, of course, are massive lump sums. You can win a lot of money (enough where you won’t need to sell scam-adjacent books), but you’ll need a lot of luck.
A few times, people have won multiple prizes playing the lottery. But these examples are very few and far between, with none of them going on to write books about how they did it. No systems or grand designs can bestow you with the winning numbers. Lotteries are, by design, as random as possible, so there are only two ways to guarantee a win.
One is cheating the lottery, which almost always ends in a lengthy prison sentence. The odds of getting away with cheating the lottery are roughly the same as winning it outright. In other words, it’s best to avoid committing felonies when playing.
Cheating isn’t viable, so there is only one way to guarantee a win. Purchase enough tickets to include every possible number combination. Before you head out to the nearest lottery retailer, there is something that you should know.
You’ll need to bring a lot of cash to buy all those tickets. Buying every ticket would cost you somewhere in the neighborhood of $585 million.
The Powerball lottery selects five numbers from a pool of 69, meaning there are 11,238,513 possible combinations. The Mega Millions is even worse, as it draws from a pool of 70 numbers. There are 12,103,014 possible combinations for that lottery, and that’s not even considering the second drawing for the Powerball (26) and Mega Ball (25) bonus balls.
What Are Some Ways To Increase the Chance of Winning?
We’ve established that the only ways to guarantee a win by playing the lottery are either highly illegal or wildly impractical. That said, there are a few things that you can do to increase your chances.
It’s essential to keep in mind that the odds won’t improve in any significant way. In math, “epsilon” refers to small numbers considered arbitrary. You’re going to wind up with “epsilon” odds regardless of how you decide to play the lottery.
Still, if the lottery is worth playing, you might as well play to win. These are four things that can increase your overall chances of winning the lottery:
1. Play the Odds
Not every lottery has astronomically low odds. Several state-run lotteries feature favorable odds compared to the national lotteries.
The key is looking for lotteries with either fewer balls or a smaller range of numbers. The possible number combinations for these games are lower, dramatically improving your chances of winning.
The tradeoff for playing smaller games is that you’ll win smaller prizes. The most significant lottery prizes in U.S. history have surpassed a billion dollars a few times. None of these prizes came from state or local lotteries.
You’ll have to answer whether you’d prefer a 1 in 5 chance of winning $10 or a 1 in 50 chance of winning $100.
2. Buy More Tickets
The obvious answer is often the best; this is a great example. Buying more tickets might have the most significant impact on your lottery odds. It’s elementary math.
If each ticket has a 1 in 100,000,000 chance of hitting the lottery, then playing 100 tickets improves the odds to 1 in 1,000,000. After all, that’s what we discussed earlier with the buying every combination tactic.
The problem with this line of thinking is that it can get expensive. A hundred lottery tickets would cost you about $200 without playing the power-up bonuses.
One in a million sure sounds easier than one in ten million, but it’s not that simple. Remember that the odds of winning are epsilon. Do you know what you get when you multiply epsilon by 100? Epsilon.
3. Join a Lottery Pool
Technically, lottery pools are another way to buy more lottery tickets. The odds of winning won’t increase whether you’re a lone wolf or part of a pack. The main reason why it’s worth considering is that it can help keep the costs down.
Lottery pools are very simple. A group of people contributes an established amount of money for each drawing. The pooled money (hence the name) purchases lottery tickets.
A lottery pool of 50 people could each contribute just $2 and be able to play 100 tickets. Any prizes that any ticket wins get split evenly and given to each member.
The main issue with this strategy is that you won’t win as much money. Few people would turn their noses up at winning a $50,000 prize playing the lottery.
However, if you have 50 people in your pool, you’ll only be taking home $2,000. To make matters worse, that’s not even considering the taxes that get automatically deducted from your winnings.
If you’re okay with splitting the pot, joining a lottery pool is an excellent option. Just make sure you’re getting involved with people you know and trust. Money has a way of bringing out the worst in people.
There have been plenty of horror stories where lottery pool managers have attempted to claim the prize for themselves. To avoid such a nasty situation, you should only join a pool with a manager you know will do the right thing. That, or you can simply start up your own pool.
4. Counter Other Strategies
There are two types of lottery players: those with the quick pick option and those who select their own numbers.
Both options have the same odds of winning, so it’s a question of personal preference. However, if you try to play against the standard strategies of other players, it could make a huge difference.
For example, most people that play the lottery stick to selecting their “lucky” numbers. These numbers often involve the dates of significant life events such as birthdays and anniversaries.
That means they’ll select numbers from 1 to 31 more frequently. Playing a number above 31 won’t increase your chances of winning, but it can reduce the odds of splitting a prize.
Other, more serious, lottery players usually play a system of their own design. It usually involves playing "hot" numbers, which means they’ve been winners more often.
The idea is that these numbers are more likely to be selected in the future because they’ve won more frequently. By avoiding these numbers, you’ll have a much different ticket than these players and won’t have to split the pot.
Bottom Line: Decrease Cost Instead of Increasing Odds
We cannot overstate that the chances of winning the lottery are improbable. There isn’t anything that you can do to increase your odds without breaking the law or breaking the bank. Instead of increasing your odds, consider decreasing your costs. Why spend $2 on a ticket that’s practically guaranteed to lose when you play for free?
The Yotta sweepstakes numbers are drawn every day at 9 p.m. EST. A total of five numbers and one YottaBall get selected for each drawing. These numbers range from 1 to 99, so the chances aren’t too high. You might be able to find a few lotteries that offer better odds of winning, but you’ll never find one that’s cheaper to play.
Entries into these daily sweepstakes are based on the content of your account. You’ll receive one ticket for every $25 that you have saved up.
Unlike lotteries that cost you, Yotta rewards you for not spending money. The contents of your account won’t decrease if you lose, but they can increase dramatically should you win. Visit Yotta today to find out more and open up your account. There’s nothing to lose when you play the Yotta sweepstakes, but plenty to win.
