What Are The Odds Of Winning The Lottery?
Everyone dreams of coming into a huge cash amount. While this often comes in the forms of an inheritance or a good business deal, it can also come from a lottery win. Even so, most people think that their odds of winning the lottery are so low that they never try playing. For instance, the odds of winning a recent Tennessee Powerball drawing were put at one in 292.2 million, which is enough to dampen your spirits.
The first thing that sets out winners from losers in lotteries is understanding the mathematical odds of winning. With this understanding, you can easily come up with a winning strategy for your lottery. Here are some mathematical elements that determine the odds of your winning the lottery.
Pick size and number field
Winning a huge jackpot, no doubt, seems like the best possible outcome for your lottery playing. Huge jackpots nonetheless come with lower odds of winning because of their high number fields and pick sizes. The less a number field, the higher your odds of winning. A lottery draw with 42 balls, for example, has higher odds of winning than one with 50 balls.
A low pick size for your lottery also increases the odds of winning. For example, a 6-pick game has lower winning chances compared to an 8-pick game. From these elements, it is best to play games with small jackpots since these have a low pick size and number field, thus higher odds of winning.
Number of lines played
The fear of missing out sees lottery players buy tickets every other day, assuming that one of those days is their lucky one. Even so, when you buy a ticket per day in the lotto 6/49, for example, your odds of winning are one in 14 million. If you buy two tickets on the same day, your odds are boosted to one in 7 million.
The ideal approach in this instance is to save cash and buy several tickets on the same day to maximize your winning odds. This, in mathematics, is known as covering. You spread your chances with multiple lines within one draw rather than play multiple draws. As such, you can start looking for countries which are cheap to travel around assured that your day of winning is near.
Odd and even number balance
The even and odd numbers you choose for your ticket and how you balance them also determine your winning odds. For the lotto 6/49, for example, there are seven ways of combining odd and even numbers with different odds of winning according to the binomial coefficient formula.
You can use this formula to calculate the odds of winning the lottery with different number combinations. There was a study that showed the odds of winning the euro jackpot 5/50 with different even and odd number combinations. According to the findings, with the right combinations and the binomial coefficient formula, the winning odds were improved.
High and low number balance
This works like the odd and even number balance and relies on number patterns. In the Lotto 5/69, for instance, the low numbers run from 0-35 while the high ones are from 36-69. You can get several combinations with the high and low numbers before calculating their probability of winning using the binomial coefficient formula.
Do your homework and check the past winning numbers of the lottery you want to play. You can then pick your numbers based on the high and low number combinations that were picked most in the previous draws.
Winning the lottery is not just a simple game of luck. It would help if you also had the right mathematical combinations for you to be among the most probable winners. While you might not win the first time around with the above elements picked correctly, you will be closer to the jackpot and win someday.
