What to Do and What not to Do to Win the Lottery

The odds of winning the lottery can be so tough that some players believe it is pointless to worry about using any lottery strategies or tips. They are of the opinion that even if you double your chances of winning, you will have to wait for a long time before you eventually see a payoff.

Therefore, some people just decide to buy a lottery ticket for fun and don’t spend any significant time on working through the numbers to select the best possible combination. However, the fact is that if you take a look at the winner stories, you will realize that some people used good strategies and they did pay off for them.

The only difference is that they chose the right strategies and steered clear of some of the really bad and ineffective tips out there. So, what should you do and what should you avoid if you want to win the lottery? Let’s take a look:

Lottery tips that work

If you want to learn the lottery tips that actually give results, they are mentioned right here.

• Focus on your expected value and not the odds

The purpose of expected value is to indicate the long-term value of any decision you make in a game of chance. Put simply, it outlines the probability of every outcome you can expect to get and this can also be applied to the lottery. Instead of trying to boost your odds of winning the lottery, you should focus more on increasing the expected value of every lottery ticket.

Doubling your odds of winning the lottery is not difficult because all you have to do is buy more and more tickets and your odds will increase. The problem with this tactic is that your cost of playing the lottery will also increase. Increasing the expected value is more cost-effective and there are several ways it can be done, which are highlighted below.

• Let the computer choose numbers for you

Most of the lotteries out there give you two options when it comes to choosing your numbers; you can either select them manually or you can let the computer choose a random number combination for you.

It might seem a little strange, but the fact is that numbers that are chosen by an RNG i.e. random number generator, can offer you a higher expected value. This is mostly due to the fact that people are not very good at choosing random numbers.

Stimulating randomness is not easy and most players end up numbers based on important dates, certain patterns, and lucky numbers or even based on the latest lottery results.

Picking your own numbers means that there is a chance someone else chose the same numbers. Hence, you may have to split the prize with others and this lowers your expected value. Letting a computer pick your numbers ensures your numbers are indeed random, thereby leading to a higher expected value.

• Pooling your resources

Lottery pools are quite common amongst families and at the workplace. In simple terms, it is an arrangement in which people pool their money together for buying a large number of tickets. If any of these tickets turn out to be a winner, the winnings are equally distributed amongst the members of the lottery pool. While this might not increase your expected value by much, it does give your winning odds a boost as you are buying more tickets.

Lottery tips that don’t work

As mentioned above, there is no shortage of bad lottery tips out there. Sure, they come off as intriguing and are fun to try, but they will only be a waste of money in the long run. Some of the lottery tips that don’t work are:

• Number tracking

This is process of recording the results of your favorite lottery game over a period of time. The purpose of this strategy is to highlight numbers that are ‘hot’ i.e. drawn frequently and those that are ‘due’ i.e. haven’t been picked in a while.

The concept that certain numbers are due to hit is quite widespread in gambling, but it is not based on any logic at all. Lottery is a game of chance and there is no way to predict what numbers may be drawn the next time around. Thus, number tracking is not likely to bear any fruit for lottery players.

• Playing the same numbers

A lot of people will recommend that you not only stay consistent while playing, but also continue playing with the same numbers. However, using this strategy will do absolutely nothing for your odds.

The lottery draw is fully random each and every time so playing the same numbers will neither improve nor worsen your odds. They will stay the same so while this theory might sound good, it is based on a common fallacy.

• Wheeling

The basic concept behind wheeling is to select a set of numbers that you like and then buy a bunch of tickets using different combinations formed from these numbers. There are different kinds of wheels out there, but almost all of them depend on you buying multiple tickets with certain numbers.

Some lottery players get very serious about wheels, but the problem with this number strategy is that it doesn’t really give you any advantage. The only way it helps is that it forces you to buy more tickets, which will increase your odds of winning. Thus, wheeling itself doesn’t really do any good and is just a waste of time.

When you are playing the lottery and you don’t want to make mistakes that could hamper your chances of winning, you can definitely use these tips. Learn to use strategies that can help in the long run and avoid those that only push you to spend more and don’t do any good and just waste your time.

Learn how to play Mega Millions online here.