Lotteries have been around for many years. They were one of the earliest forms of gambling and are still as popular today. For example, if you look at the National Lottery in the UK or the Euromillions in Europe, each and every week, although unfortunately it hasn’t been me yet, they make someone a millionaire. Likewise, at the same time, you have to be in it to have a chance of winning it.
Although, like me, you’ve probably heard the old adage of more chance of winning’ the lottery. But that then got me thinking. Is there actually any way that I can boost my chances when playing the lottery? Of course, there is no secret hidden way, but I then went on a journey to discover whether there was any way that I could tilt the odds in my favour.
Can you Boost Your Chances?
And so if you’ve also been pondering this question just like me, thankfully I’ve saved you the time it took me to discover if this is possible, and today I’m going to explain it all. So that next time you’re looking at an online lottery game list, you can really truly assess your chances of whether you can boost your chances of one day becoming a millionaire. But before I dive into that, let’s recap exactly what a lottery is. Well, to put it simply, the UK Gambling Commission assesses that any ‘lottery’ is a form of gambling with the following characteristics:
- In order to take part in the lottery, you must pay.
- There is usually more than one prize on offer; this can either be monetary or indeed some other form of prize.
- Each of the prizes is awarded by chance; there is no influence or lobbying.
And so if you’re playing the National Lottery, for example, you will note that this does indeed tick these boxes. You have to pay £2 to get your ticket; whether that’s a lucky dip or your chosen numbers, there are always multiple prizes depending on how many numbers you match. And so this does indeed, as I’ve just outlined, meet all the criteria.
Is it Really a Game of Chance?
However, I invite you to focus on one particular area of that, and it is the part where it says prizes are awarded by chance. And so, like me, you’re probably thinking if it’s a game of chance, it’s purely luck as to whether you will win or not. And so, is this really the case? Well, the first thing that I immediately thought of and indeed is true is that you can boost your chances of winning by buying more than one ticket. This means that if I bought ten tickets instead of two, I would have increased my chances of winning by 10.
However, something that I did note and is something you should be wary of is, of course, that this means that it is more of an initial investment up front. It means I could be spending £20 instead of £2, and I could still end up not winning.
Understanding these facts of the game is an essential part of responsible gambling, and it’s something that any gambler should understand before they start playing.
Suggested Tactics
There are other strategies that I realised people employ and that mainly surround their reasons behind number selection. On most lotteries, you can either choose the numbers yourself, or you can choose like I prefer to, a lucky dip. This is where the computer will randomly generate numbers on your behalf. And although again, these tips in no way are guaranteed to increase your chances of winning, they are what I have found people tend to utilise when choosing their numbers.
The first tip I found is that you should always avoid choosing consecutive numbers if you can. And secondly, we also have an even spread. Most of the lottery games consist of 50 numbers, so you wouldn’t want all of your numbers in the range of between 40 and 50, for example; instead, I would recommend that you have a bit more of a fair distribution. Although again, this is all down to personal preference.
You may just want to pick numbers that have a sentimental value to you, for example, your birthday or your family members’ birthdays, and this could end up being the
In Summary
Hopefully today I’m hoping that I’ve shed a bit of light on what exactly a lottery is, how you can know one to be as such, and also if you are thinking about playing a lottery in the future, some tips to know about number selection and also about how many tickets you’re buying so that you know that you have increased your chances of winning. However, depending on how many players are in a specific lottery, your chances may be very small still, so this is always something to bear in mind when playing. And to remember, it is a form of gambling, so you should avoid getting carried away.