Lottery hacks that work, and the ones that don't
· Every figure is worked out from the game's rules.
No method makes a line more likely to win. In EuroMillions every line has a 1 in 139,838,160 chance of the jackpot, however you chose it. Some decisions, though, change how much you lose and how many people you would share a prize with. Those are the only ones worth your time.
What works
1. Pick a game by what it pays back
Every lottery returns a different share of what is played as prizes. At the smallest jackpot and the usual sales, a play pays back on average:
| Game | Price | Pays back |
|---|---|---|
| Extra 5 | €0.50 | 55.8% |
| Greek Lotto | €1 | 50.4% |
| Eurojackpot | €2 | 48.7% |
| Lotto 6aus49 | €1.20 | 41.9% |
| SuperEnalotto | €1 | 38.8% |
| UK Lotto | £2 | 38.7% |
| Tzoker | €1 | 28.7% |
| Irish Lotto | €2 | 28.3% |
| Mega Millions | $5 | 25.8% |
| EuroMillions | €2.50 | 23.3% |
| Powerball | $2 | 19.4% |
The spread is wide: from 55.8% in Extra 5 to 19.4% in Powerball. None pays back its price, but the same budget runs out more slowly in a game that pays back more.
2. Set a limit and count it in years
At €10 a week on EuroMillions for 40 years you spend €20,800. As it pays back 23.3% on average, the bill comes to about €15,956. Work out your own with the lifetime bill.
3. Avoid the lines everyone plays
Dates, patterns on the slip, 1-2-3-4-5: their chance is no lower, but if they win, the prize is shared with more people. Only 8% of the possible lines in EuroMillions are made of numbers up to 31 alone, so players of birthdays crowd into that corner. The number checker tells you whether your line looks like one of them.
What doesn't work
More lines for "better odds"
Ten different lines make the jackpot chance 1 in 13,983,816, at €25 instead of €2.50. The chance and the cost grow together, so every euro buys the same chance as before, and the average loss is ten times as large.
Hot and cold numbers
In a simulation of 1,000 draws of a fair machine, the 5 numbers drawn most often in the first 500 draws came out on average 58.6 times in the next 500, and the 5 drawn least often 61 times, against 61.2 expected. A draw does not remember the last one. The full proof is in the guide to hot and cold numbers.
Systems
A system plays every line of a larger set of numbers. You pay for each line at the same price, and each has the same chance as a single line. What each euro pays back stays the same; the Tzoker system tables show it line by line.
Your own numbers or random ones
The draw does not know how you chose. Random numbers help with one thing only: they are less likely to look like the popular lines.