20 January 2024 , 10:10
500
0
People who use certain strategies or patterns when picking their lottery numbers might be hurting their chances of winning big, an expert has warned.
Laura Pearson, vice president of global corporate affairs at Lottoland, said the company had studied user data and found that massive numbers of people were sabotaging their chances of winning. Millions of Brits make a few simple mistakes when choosing their numbers that could be stopping them from scooping the jackpot, in many cases it is because people are trying too hard to win, Ms Pearson said.
There are three main errors made over and over again by people playing the lottery Ms Pearson said. Firstly, people don’t pay enough attention to the odds. One of the biggest errors people make is only playing the lottery when there is a particularly large jackpot. As the size of the prize increases, the odds of you winning generally go down.
The more buzz there is around a big jackpot, the more people will play and the more people in the game, the lower your chances are of winning, Ms Pearson explained.
Some people pick numbers in patterns on their ticket, but this only limits which numbers you can pick, Ms Pearson said (PA)"People should understand, first of all, that the bigger the jackpot, the bigger the odds are against them winning it," she told the Sun. "This is because the higher the jackpot amount is, the greater the hype, so more people buy tickets."
Woman was 'adamant' she would win top lottery prize - then pockets $200,000
Players are better opting for a lower prize that is generating less attention, she advised. And if you’re smart, you want to look at the odds not just of scooping the jackpot, but winning the other tiers of prizes too.
“Learning the odds of different lottery games can make all the difference and might make you reconsider your favourite lottery,” Ms Pearson said. The second common error people make is trying to pick ‘patterns’ or ‘lucky numbers’ - you are often better off going for random numbers or a quick pick, according to the experts.
Part of the reason that so many of the largest jackpots are shares between multiple people is due to out subconscious tendency to pick the same numbers. Even if you’re trying hard to be different - there is a good chance that your lucky or special numbers will end up being the same as other people’s.
As well as numbers like seven and 13 being popular picks, Ms Pearson said, even picking dates wont ensure your numbers are different from those of other players.
She said: "Most common of all are all the people picking numbers based on dates between 1 and 31 - a large proportion of whom all end up with the numbers 19 and 20." So to make sure you win the jackpot in full it is best to pick your numbers at total radom, you can use a "quick pick" to generate random numbers for you.
The final error that lots of people make is trying to divine the future by looking at past lottery wins. Many people feel tempted to look at what numbers have won big jackpots before and use some combination of them as they are seen as lucky. However, each lottery draw is completely unique and past wins don’t mean that any particular number is likely to come up in future. In fact, it's even less likely that the same set of numbers will reappear again in a short space of time, according to Lottoland.
Nobody can predict what the numbers will be for the next lottery draw, but you can improve your chances of winning by joining a syndicate - the prize will be smaller but you will be more likely to win something.
Studying and comparing the odds of different games and prize tiers can also give you an idea of which you are more likely to win, although it is generally the case that games with lower cash prizes have better odds of winning.