Why Play the Lottery? Lottery Prognosticator by Robert P. Lyon
In many cases the serious gambler does not play the lottery because he or she knows the odds of winning are astronomical compared to just about any other type of gambling. Also, the payout is, more often than not, less than 50%. Even under these circumstances there are good reasons why you should play the lottery in the state where you live. Playing the lottery in your home state gets you a return on your money even if you don’t win. I know that sounds a little crazy, but look at it from this viewpoint.
The politicians that run your state get the finances they need to run the government through taxes. When they need more money they raise the taxes you pay through school taxes, property taxes, gas taxes, sales taxes, and numerous others. The money people spend playing the lottery keeps some of these taxes from going up. It doesn’t matter where the state spends the lottery proceeds as it’s money they don’t have to replace by taxing the people of the state. When you pay taxes you don’t get the opportunity to win something back. When you pay the lottery it’s the same as paying taxes, but you do get a chance, however small that may be, of getting something back. Maybe you’ll be the lucky one that wins millions. Remember the old saying, “If you don’t play, you can’t win!”
Now let’s take a closer look at those odds. There are a number of ways we can reduce them. The first thing is to decide how much money you can afford to spend on lottery tickets. While it’s true that the more tickets you buy the better your odds of winning it’s foolish to spend hundreds of dollars on tickets because you can’t cut the odds enough to make it practical. If you want to play a large number of tickets the best way is to join or form a group. Here are some of the ways you can put the odds more in your favor.
By studying the history of the game you can play smarter and increase your chances of winning, if not the jackpot, then some lower tiered prize. Because there are so many different games I will use known statistics from a 6/49 game. This game is where 6 numbers are drawn from a field of 49 numbers. We will compile the figures using the last 100 draws.
The sum total range of all 6 numbers drawn is a great place to start. By adding the 6 numbers drawn in each game you get the sum of those numbers. 84% of the time you will find that sum falls between 105 and 195. By eliminating all games that don’t fall in this range you can not only save a bundle of money playing fewer games, but you’ll be able to increase your chances of winning as well.
Even and odd numbers also play a role in each drawing. We know that 80% of the time 2, 3, or 4 of the numbers drawn are either even or odd. Only 5% of the time are 5 even and 1 odd number drawn, or 5 odd and one even number. Only 1% of the time are all 6 numbers drawn all odd, or all even. While 36% of the time there are 3 even and 3 odd numbers drawn.
In 55% of the games there are 1 or 2 repeat numbers from the last game drawn. So you want to take a look at the numbers drawn in the last game for possible use in your playing strategy.
The last statistic we will look at is consecutive numbers. These are numbers like 9, 10, and 11. In the last 100 draws 54% of the time 2 or 3 consecutive numbers were drawn.
Using these facts in your playing strategy you will be spending less, playing smarter, and at least getting a chance to win something for your “tax” dollar.
The statistics for each state are all available free on my website: www.lottery.bizland.com.
