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How to Win the Lottery

Today, I ran across an article on the Huffington Post about 7 time lottery winner Richard Lustig. Back in November, Lustig was giving out tips on how to win the lottery, or at least, how to increase your chances of winning. This man has won the grand prize seven times, so either he is the luckiest man in the world, or he knows what he's talking about, (you be the judge).

Here are some of his tips:
- Pick your own numbers instead of having the machine do it for you
- Research and see if your numbers have won before
- Select your ten sets of numbers and keep those if you continue buying tickets
- Buy as many tickets as you can afford

Those tips sounded great, but I wondered, "What are the real chances of me winning the lottery even if I did those things?" I decided to find out.

In Pennsylvania, we have the Cash 5 Lottery Drawing. The odds of winning the Cash 5 are obviously better than the odds of winning the PowerBall or any lottery drawing with more than 5 numbers, but it still holds a high jackpot at times. So I went to www.webmath.com where they asked me a few simple questions in order to calculate my chances of winning.

Here is how they broke it down (click the image to enlarge):


As it turns out, there is a 1 in 962,598 chance that I will win the Cash 5 (if I decide to play it). Just for fun, Web Math gave me some other odds to compare this to. For example; there is about a 1 in 2,000,000 chance of being struck by lightning; a pregnant woman has a 1 in 705,000 chance of giving birth to quadruplets; and someone eating an oyster has a 1 in 12,000 chance of finding a pearl inside of it.

If you live in Pennsylvania and you plan to play the lottery, here are your chances of winning:
The Big 4: 1 in 126 chance
Cash 5: 1 in 962,598 chance
Match 6 Lotto: 1 in 13,983,816 chance
Mega Millions: 1 in 3,819,816 chance of picking the winning numbers on your top grid and 1 in 46 chance of getting the Mega Ball number correct.
Powerball: 1 in 5,006,386 chance of picking the winning numbers on your top grid and 1 in 35 chance of getting the Power Ball number correct.

Calculating the odds for winning The Daily Number and Quinto is a bit trickier since you have to calculate the chances of selecting the correct numbers and consider your Play Type and Bid. The PA Lottery has a thorough chart on your odds of winning at their website; palottery.state.pa.us

So, are you feeling lucky yet? :)
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Comments

  1. AnonymousFebruary 18, 2013 at 4:14 AM


    A lottery is a form of gambling which involves the drawing of lots for a prize.
    Lottery is outlawed by some governments, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery.
    For more information please visit: How to Win the Lottery

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownFebruary 25, 2013 at 7:50 AM

    Yes it is. but people are hoping to win the lotto so, even if they know it's gambling at least it is authorized by the government and lottery helps charity.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousMarch 1, 2013 at 9:27 AM

    Regardless of the odds I play play religiously. My motto has always been "You can't win, if you don't play!" So many people dream fo what they'd do with the money if they win but don't ever play. Really cool to see the breakdown of your math though, pretty interesting to view the odds. I can't believe someone has won the grand prize 7 times... I've maybe won a dollar 7 times, haha! I think the only question left for me when I win is lump sum or annuity payments?!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Juanita HarrisMarch 4, 2013 at 10:43 AM

    Thanks for the comments everyone. I do play the lottery for fun. I don't play every day, but every now and then I try my luck :) You never know what could happen, right?

    ReplyDelete

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