When buying lottery tickets, you need to stack the odds in your favor. By following these free tips, you can play the lotto with confidence that you might actually be a winner, rather than just giving away your money. Depending on where you live and how you want to play, there are many things you need to know.
First, you have to choose a lottery you can have a chance to win without being one of the luckiest people in the entire world. To do that you have to know your lottery odds, and what’ll you’ll win when start matching numbers.
Lottery Odds
The chances of winning the lottery are calculated based on the number of matches you need to win the jackpot (i.e. Match 5, 6, or 7) and the number of balls in (40,45,49,59,69, or 70). Generally, the higher either number, the lower your chances of winning the jackpot.
Near Impossible To Win
Most people who play the lottery casually get caught up in the hype of games with huge jackpots without considering the odds. In the US the chances of winning the Powerball or MegaMillions jackpot are astronomical. In fact, the odds almost outnumber the county’s entire population.
Powerball Jackpot odds | 1 in 292,201,338 |
MegaMillions Jackpot odds | 1 in 302,575,350 |
Ridiculous Good Luck Needed
Some of these big state-run lotteries are also quite popular, but they too have odds that require a tremendous amount of luck on your side.
California SuperLotto Plus odds | 1 in 41,416,353 |
New York Lotto odds | 1 in 45,057,474.00 |
Lucky Horseshoes Required
Some other states offer better options because they offer fewer balls in play. The odds of winning, however, are still high enough that you’ll probably never win unless you’re able to play a ton of tickets over a long period of time.
Florida Lottery odds | 1 in 22,957,480 |
Texas Lotto odds | 1 in 25,827,165 |
Tips on Beating The Odds
If you play lotteries with fewer balls in play or a lower number of picks with the same number of balls, you’ll increase your odds of winning the jackpot.
For example, the Missouri Lotto that has a $1M minimum jackpot and averages $1.7M, but only uses 44 balls and cost just $0.50 per line. Just by choosing to play this lottery, your chances of winning the jackpot would be 6.5x easier than winning the Florida Lottery, and 85x easier than winning MegaMillions.
Missouri Lottery odds | 1 in 3,529,526 |
If you want to take this one step further, look for rollover lotteries like New Jersey Cash 5 at $1 a pop, where jackpots sometimes reach $1-1.5M, and at times, the jackpot number is higher than the actual odds of winning.
New Jersey Cash 5 odds | 1 in 1,221,759 |