How many times have you had a lotto ticket, and no numbers have came up?
You consider the odds, and cant imagine how the probability of this outcome can be so high.

If you do the mathematics, the results may be surprising.

Probability of-

Getting 0 Numbers – 43.6%               (1 in 2.29 chance)
Getting 1 Number – 41.3%                 (1 in 2.42 chance)
Getting 2 Numbers – 13.2%               (1 in 7.55 chance)
Getting 3 Numbers – 1.7%                 (1 in 56.66 chance)
Getting 4 Numbers – 0.09%               (1 in 1,032.4 chance)
Getting 5 Numbers – 0.00184%         (1 in 54,200.8 chance)
Getting 6 Numbers – 0.00000716%   (1 in 13,983,816 chance)

Getting 5 Numbers & Bonus Ball – 0.00004291% (1 in 2,300,606)

Despite what you might think, the chance of getting 0 numbers is quite high. The chances of not winning a prize on the lotto is 98.1%. In other words, if you play one line a week, you should expect to win one, prize of some description, once a year.

Another statistic is that if you play two lines on the lottery, twice a week (as many people do), you should win the jackpot within a mere 67,230 years.

These sometimes astronomical numbers, can be meaningless. Let me put this into context.

Statistically speaking, this is the amount of money you would have to spend to win a prize-

3 Numbers (Prize = £10) – £56.66                                (@ 17.65% payout)
4 Numbers (Typical Prize – £65) – £1,032                      (@ 6.30% payout)
5 Numbers (Typical Prize – £1,500) – £54,201               (@ 2.77% payout)
6 Numbers (Typical Prize – £2 million) – £13,983,816    (@ 14.30% payout)
5 Numbers & Bonus (Typical Prize – £100,000) – £2,300,606 (@ 4.35% payout)

This all suggests that if you play the lottery for financial gain, then you might as well stop now. Getting 5 Numbers only pays 1500/1 even though the real chance is around 54,200/1.

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So, which game is best to play?
Lets compare other Lottery Games

               Lotto-             Thunderball-      Dream Number-      EuroMillions-          
TJ-         £2million          £250,000            £500,000             £11million
PO-        1 in 57                1 in 18                1 in 11                   1 in 24
P%SP    16.65%              15.1%                 18.0%                   12.2%
P%MP    2.77%                1.6%                    4.5%                     0.78%
P%JP     14.3%                 6.4%                    5%                        9.6%

KEY –
TJ = Total Jackpot.         
PO – Prize odds (odds of winning a prize of some description).        
P%SP (Payout on winning smallest prize – ranges from £2 to £10)
P%MP (Payout on winning medium prize – from £1500 to £5000)
P%JP (Payout on Jackpot prize – from £250,000 up to £11,000,000)

So what does this all mean? Basically, for small prizes, all games have similar payouts. Dream Number is highest on the small prizes, but the prize is only £2. For medium Prizes, Dream Number is best again, with 4.5% payout on a £5,000 prize. If you are looking big, stick with Lotto. It is the game that has the highest payout on the jackpot prize.

Euromillions has a reasonably high payout on the jackpot, but this is simply because the jackpot is so huge. Jackpots range from £10million to £13million, with rollovers sometimes reaching £100million. These statistics show to stay away from Euromillions. The euromillions website claim that the chance of winning jackpotaround  (1 in 76,000,000) offers “more than a fair deal. I won’t comment on that. The other three games are fairly similar. Dream number is the best for small and medium prizes, and as this all the majority of us can hope to win, this game may be the best.

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“Youve got more chance of being struck by lightening twice….”

Is it a myth? Check out the statistics

Odds of winning Lotto – 1 in 13,983,816
Odds of winning Euromillions – 1 in 76,275,360
Odds of being struck by lightening – 1 in 5,000
Odds of being struck by lightening twice – 1 in 25,000,000

You have more chance of winning lottery than getting struck by lightening twice!! But when it comes to euromillions, as you can see, story is very different.

When it comes to the euro millions- youve got as much chance as striking jackpot as -

Murdering someone and getting away with it, then getting hemorrhoids, then finding a four leaf clover on your first attempt, and then going on an aeroplane with a drunk pilot.

Or spotting a UFO tomorrow, and then being a victim of a serious criminal offence.

In otherwords, its not gonna happen.

What numbers should I choose?

Well, there are numbers that appear consistently more than others. The number that appears less than any other is (ironically) the number 13 – unlucky for some.

The six most common numbers are-
11, 23, 25, 31, 38,43

The best performing combination of numbers are-
01, 07, 22, 25, 31, 47

So one could say these numbers are better to pick than others. But in reality, there is just as much chance as drawing the least common as the most common. Also, the chances are, that as these are the most common numbers, they are also the most popular numbers, so in the event of a big win, the money would be shared between more people.

So, maybe the trick is to pick 6 numbers that are a unique combination. Maybe the idea to pick numbers 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06. People would assume “that will never ever happen”, but of course, this is untrue. But, personal research has told me that this 6 digit combination of numbers are up there with the most popular.

A search query of “how to win the lottery” (in inverted commas) returns 64,500 results. Despite reading none of them, I presume all are total rubbish. If you could cheat the lottery, people would be doing it.

The only system worth using is syndicates. There are claims that you are 30x more likely to win jackpot with syndicates. Whether this is true or not is unproved.

In conclusion, very few of us will win the lottery. Just as very few of us will be struck by lightening (twice). There is no method, no system that will “make” you win. Its a game of luck and chance. No one can predict who will win, its a total lottery.