If possible, always buy your own lottery tickets.
Don't ask neighbors or friends to pick them up for you. Similarly, don't pick
up tickets for others. Don't loan or borrow money for tickets, and don't go halves,
either. Why? The simple answer is that it is not as trivial as getting the
newspaper for someone the store? If the
ticket doesn't win or if the prize is small, then there's usually no problem.
But if the ticket turns out to be a jackpot winner, you could have a sticky
situation on your hands. The person may feel entitled to some of the winnings,
due to the timing of the purchase, the time and effort taken etc. So, just to
be on the safe side do it yourself and advise others to follow suit!
Another example, is your friend said she'd pay you the money for the ticket
later. Fine, you think. What's a small amount of cashr? You give her the
ticket, and she's now a millionaire. Be honest. Would you perhaps feel you're
entitled to part of the windfall? After all, you did buy the ticket with your
own money. OK, it wasn't technically your money. It was money you loaned your friend.
Still, you did go and purchase the ticket, so you might feel you're entitled to
some of the winnings.
So we can now understand some of the potential pitfalls of NOT getting your
tickets for yourself - and letting others do likewise. So, do the smart thing!!
Another aspect to consider is the legalities of winning and playing the game. The
major ones are residency, age, how it is sold (some US states' laws prohibit
the sale of tickets by phone, mail, fax and online). So it would be prudent to make sure you do
fall foul of the rules!
You'll frequently see ads online and in magazines and newspapers for books,
software, and other media to help you in your goal to win the Lotto. Some of
these are reputable businesses and can offer you professionally designed
wheeling systems and other strategies that may help better your chances. But if
one of these companies claims their product is guaranteed to make you the next
Lotto millionaire, ask yourself one very obvious question: If they've managed
to solve the riddle of how to win a jackpot, why are they running an ad?
Playing Smart
If you've been playing for any length of time, by now you've surely heard the
advice: "Don't play popular numbers." Why? Certain groups or
combinations of numbers are played by hundreds or even thousands of people on
any one Lotto night. So why would you care about that? Because if you played 1,
2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 and those numbers were drawn, there may be thousands of
people to split the prize with. In a $5 million jackpot, you could end up with
less than a Pick 3 payoff. What are the popular combinations? There are the
sequences such as the one just given as well as sequences of multiples of a
certain number. One popular sequence, which consists of multiples of the number
5, is 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30. And because the number is considered lucky,
people often play the multiples of 7: 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, and 49.
Another less common practice is to use all numbers of the same value. Sometimes
people will play all numbers with the value of the number 3: 3, 12, 21, 30, 39,
and 48. Suppose your primary number is 3, because your birthday is March
21. As you previously learned, 21 -- or any number with the value of 3 -- is
lucky for you. However, don't use them all on the same play slip. Spread them
out over several different plays. Other selections aren't so apparent. What,
you might ask, is so common about this combination: 8, 11, 18, 21, 28, and 31?
If you fill in these squares on some states' Little Lotto or Lotto play slips,
you'll see that these make a zigzag pattern depending on the layout of your
play slip.
Many people select numbers that, when marked in the squares, create a design on
the play slip. Common patterns are horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines;
letters of the alphabet such as X or M; the four corners and centre of the play
slip; zigzags; and crosses. Even if you do win, playing popular ticket patterns
will reduce your share of the jackpot -- sometimes significantly.
People tend to think alike when it comes to playing numbers, so try to avoid
the most logical patterns of play. As for the most popular single numbers
(those not part of a popular series), they are 1 through 31 -- the birthday
numbers. This is not to say you should avoid playing your birth date.
Just don't make a habit of playing all low numbers on one ticket. Keep in mind
that the digits 1 through 9 are even more popular. Keep those to a minimum. It
seems there are few hard and fast rules in Lotto, though. There have been
multimillion jackpots in which the winning numbers were all low ones (but since
they weren't popular combinations of low numbers, the winners didn't have to
split the jackpot with many other winners). Although the results aren't as
dramatically disappointing as with popular numbers, another way you may lose
out -- even if you win -- is when the jackpot is large. When there is no winner
for a while, the prize money rolls over and, in a sort of snowball effect,
grows ever larger. The more people buy tickets, the bigger the jackpot grows.
And the bigger it grows, the more people buy tickets.
So if you correctly pick five out of six, there may be many more
five-out-of-six winners than usual, which may mean less money for you. If the
name of the game is to win, and the way to win is to lessen the odds, why join
the crowd? Go ahead and buy a ticket for the big-money drawing. But smart
players quietly prefer the "small" jackpots, those of only valued
between 1 and 6 million. This is called maximizing the value of your prize. If
you think about it, those "small" jackpots would be pretty nice
prizes to win, too.
Make a Budget
There seems to be nearly as many budgets for lottery play as there are playing
strategies. Some believe "when you're hot, you're hot," and when
you're on a winning streak, you should continue to bet. You'll be inclined to
agree with that, with its theory that some time periods in our lives are more
lucky than others. But too many people go about it the wrong way. For example,
you may buy £8 worth of scratch cards one morning and win £20 and £5. Not bad,
you think. So you keep on going and pretty soon end up losing the lot and
sometimes even more!!
Sometimes we have a knack for conveniently forgetting our original investments.
The best thing to do is to draw up a plan in which you spend a certain amount
per month. Be consistent. Never, for any reason, go over this amount. When
you're on a roll, reinvest only the amount you started with. Set aside your
regular amount for next month's playing, and put the rest of your profits in a
safe place. This idea is used by players in the stock markets and other money
markets and is a simple one: Let your profits ride, and cut your losses.
Remember that rule whenever you play the lottery, and you'll enjoy the games
much more.