You likely have heard that you have better chances of being struck by lightning than winning the lottery. However, this is only true of million-dollar jackpots; it isn’t true in the more general sense. In fact, some scratch tickets give you a nearly 50/50 shot at winning! The secret to this lies in the odds of winning lottery money.
Read on to learn all about odds, why you should care about them, and how you can use your knowledge of lotto odds to win some fast cash.
Understand the Odds of Winning Lottery Money
When most people think of winning the lottery, they imagine themselves walking out of a department store with a million-dollar check. This isn’t the reality for most lotto winners. Winning the jackpot is an extremely unlikely scenario that very few people will ever experience.
However, most people who regularly play the lotto are bound to win at some point or another. This is because they played tickets with high odds rather than high stakes or winnings.
The odds of winning the lottery are your chances of winning. ‘Odds’ are simply professionally-compiled statistics that showcase your likelihood of walking away with any cash. Note that high odds of winning don’t mean that you’re likely to win a lot of money- you may simply win back the price of your ticket.
Generally, the odds of winning a lottery are represented with a fraction or a decimal. 2/1 odds mean that you have a one in three chance of winning. 3.0 odds mean the same thing.
Do Some Online Research
To improve your chances of winning the lottery, you’ll need to find those that have the highest odds. Scratch-offs tend to have more winners than Powerball-type lotteries. Read up on scratch-off secrets to learn which scratch tickets in your area give you the best chance of cashing out.
Checking the odds before buying ensures that you’ll get the best bang for your buck. You can find these statistics on your state’s website and make a more informed decision from there.
Don’t Pick Lotteries With Recent Big Winners
On the state website, you’ll also want to look at which lotteries have recently had all of their biggest prizes claimed. If a specific scratch-off has recently had some big winners, you’re unlikely to win a higher sum of money when playing.
You might even have lower odds of winning if the lottery is being played more frequently as a result of others seeing the winnings. Whether you’re looking for a big payout or simply any winnings, it’s best to steer clear of the scratchers that have been getting a lot of recent press.
Additionally, you’ll want to avoid scratch tickets that are part of a roll that has already had a big winner (or a lot of consecutive winners). Every roll of scratch tickets has a set number of winnings. If a lot of money has already come out of a roll, it’s a sign that you should play a different scratch-off game.
Choose Venues With Fewer Customers
Avoiding rolls with lots of winners is a good reason to buy tickets at a venue with fewer customers. You can determine how much traffic a gas station or department store has simply by looking around. If you want to be even more sure that there hasn’t been too much foot traffic, you can ask the seller what the next ticket on the ticket roll you’re considering is.
Every roll of scratch tickets begins with ticket number 000. If the seller tells you that the number on the back is 100, it’s better to play that lottery than it is to play one that has a ticket number of 500. This is because fewer winning tickets will have already been purchased.
Another reason to choose a location with fewer customers is that more players translates immediately to more winners. Every venue is guaranteed to have a certain number of winning players. If you go to a place with fewer players (and therefore fewer winners), you increase your odds of being one of these winners.
Buy Lotto Tickets in Bulk
When you flip a coin, you always have a 50/50 chance of getting heads or tails. If you roll 5 heads in a row, the next roll still has an equal chance of each possibility. This is because the coin itself never changes regardless of whether or not you have a streak.
This isn’t true for scratch tickets. Buying a losing ticket alters the roll and decreases the chances of drawing another losing ticket. If your initial odds are 1 in 4, the probability of winning increases with the purchase of each ticket. Drawing 2 losing tickets eliminates them from the pool, which means that you have a 1 in 2 chance of winning the next one.
This is why buying tickets in bulk is a good idea. If you buy 4 tickets from the lottery that had a 1-in-4 shot, you’re extremely likely to win something (even if it is a small prize).
Don’t believe us? Just ask Richard Lustig– he won the lottery several times by using this method. By calculating odds and buying in bulk, he managed to win over $1 million over the course of time.
Increase Your Winnings Today
While you may think that the odds of winning lottery money are low, this isn’t the case at all. While the jackpot might be a far reach, most people can score at least some cash as long as they do a little research.
Our experts are committed to giving you the best insider tips for winning big when you play the lotto. We track the odds of every given lottery game and come up with data-driven secrets for cashing out. Invest in a ScratchSmarter subscription for your state to improve your chances of winning the lottery.