The Winning Odds in Lottery
Updated: | By: Viktor Peters
Lotteries are held in almost every country in the world and are allowed even in places with strict gambling rules. People regularly give them a shot, all with the same dream â to receive a payout. But how likely is it? What are your chances of winning a lottery, and which of them offers the best odds? We will answer these questions below.
Contents
Mathematics of Lotteries Explained
The best thing about lotteries is that they do not require experience or knowledge. You donât need anything but luck, and anyone can be the next winner. But what is the chance to win the lottery? Letâs explain this in simple words.- Letâs say you are participating in a lottery with 49 numbers and are allowed to pick 6 of them. To win the grand prize, you need to guess all sequences correctly. In mathematics, this can be shown as â6/49â.
- Your chance of guessing the first number right is 1 in 49 (1/49). When the second number is drawn, there are only 48 numbers left, so your chance becomes 1 in 48 (1/48).
- In other words, there are 49 different ways to guess the first number and 48 â the second, and so on. The probability of correctly guessing the first two numbers can be calculated as 1 in 49 Ă 48. By the third number, the chance becomes 1/47, which can be added to the same formula, i.e., 1 in 49 Ă 48 Ă 47. We can continue this formula until the sixth number: 49 Ă 48 Ă 47 Ă 46 Ă 45 Ă 44. The result is 10.068,347,520.
How Many Chances Are There to Win Lottery: Sample Scenarios
We previously provided theoretical data, and now we can apply these calculations to well-known lotteries, which are listed in the table below. This will assist you in identifying the titles offering the best chance to win lottery.| Lottery Name | Winning Chance |
|---|---|
| Saturday Lotto | 1 in 8,145,060 |
| Monday & Wednesday Lotto | 1 in 8,145,060 |
| Powerball | 1 in 134,490,400 |
| OZ Lotto | 1 in 62,891,499 |
| Set for Life | 1 in 38,320,568 |
| Lucky Lotteries Mega Jackpot | 1 in 9,483,168 |
| Lucky Lotteries Super Jackpot | 1 in 18,385,877 |
| Super 66 | 1 in 1,000,000 |
| Lotto Strike | 1 in 3,575,880 |
| RSL Art Union | 1 in 1,775,000 |
| TATTS | 1 in 678,755 |
| The Pools | 1 in 230,057 |
| Mega Millions | 1 in 302,575,350 |
Second Chance to Win Lottery Explained
Some lotteries offer a âsecond chance to winâ opportunity through a âconsolation drawâ for tickets that didnât win the main prize initially. While the second chance prize may not be as substantial as the first, itâs still worth considering. In essence, if your ticket didnât win for the first time, donât discard it immediately â you might still have a shot at winning.How Do I Know If I Win Second Chance Lottery?
To check if youâve won a second chance lottery, all you need to do is visit the operatorâs official website and enter your ticket number in the designated section. The website will provide you with the results instantly. Here are the links to a few of the most popular second-chance lotteries:- https://www.calottery.com/2nd-chance
- https://mnlottery.com/about-the-lottery/2nd-chance-faq
- https://www.oregonlottery.org/second-chance/winners/
- https://wilottery.com/games/super-2nd-chance
- https://www.ohiolottery.com/MyLotto-Rewards/Second-Chance-Promotions
- https://www.palottery.state.pa.us/winners/second-chance-drawing-prize-zone-winners.aspx
- https://www.njlottery.com/en-us/secondchance.html
- https://www.coloradolottery.com/en/games/bonus-draws/scratch/159/
How to Get the Highest Chance to Win Lottery
According to Harvard statistics professor Dr. Mark Glickman, purchasing more tickets is the only effective strategy to improve your chances of winning. This is because the odds remain constant, and no other tactics can alter them. Even if you buy a single ticket for a particular lottery daily and continue doing so for 50 years, your chances will always remain unchanged. This is also true for previous winners. If someone wins the lottery, that personâs chances of winning the same lottery a second time will be the same as someone who has never won the lottery before. In other words, having won the lottery before does not mean anything: it does not make your chances better or less likely. By purchasing more tickets, you can cover more outcomes, giving you the best chance to win the lottery. And while none of them offer a âguaranteeâ, you can try the following:- Join lottery groups. Buying many tickets alone will be costly, but you can find online groups collecting them in a single pool. For example, if everyone in a group of 100 people buys 10 tickets, a collection of 1,000 tickets is created and the chance of winning increases statistically. However, remember that even if you succeed in such a case, the prize will be shared among the pool members.
- Prefer lotteries with a few participants. The more people participate in a lottery, the less chance of winning. Therefore, it would be a better idea to participate in local and small-scale lotteries instead of world-famous ones like Powerball.
- Focus on double digits. This may seem strange advice, but scientific truth is behind it. Academician Arin Zargarian suggested that double-digit numbers, particularly 23, appear more frequently in Powerball draws. He attributes this to the extra ink in printing such numbers, creating a weight difference that affects the selection process.
