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You have a one in 300 million chance of hitting the jackpot, and while winning the lottery sounds impossible, a mathematician shares how it’s achievable.
Speak against WIREDRyan (Skip) Garibaldi said that choosing unpopular numbers, buying tickets from states that sell the least, and choosing the right scratch cards increases the odds.
The expert revealed a serious mistake that can keep you from making millions: choosing dates to play, which is what most people do.
“Another piece of advice might be, when you look at the card where you pick your numbers, don’t just pick a column of numbers on that card, because some people will,” Garibaldi told WIRED.
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Americans spend nearly $100 billion annually on state lotteries, hoping to hit a life-changing amount of money, but usually walk away empty-handed.
The largest national Powerball was in 2016 when the pot reached a whopping $1.586 billion across three tickets from California, Florida and Tennessee.
But as people start buying their tickets every week, Garibaldi has shared some knowledge about what to do and what not to do.
He told WIRED that picking consecutive numbers could be a good move as it helped Richard Lustig win four times in the local Florida lottery for $1,038,499.92.
Lusting, who passed away in 2018, previously said he reinvested profits into buying more lottery tickets, used carefully chosen sequence numbers, and constantly used the same numbers.
“This won’t increase your chances of winning,” said Garibaldi, the director of the Center of Communications Research in La Jolla, California.
That sort of thing gives you the same chance of hitting the jackpot as any other choice.
“But when you look at a card like that, it looks weird. So many consecutive numbers help you not share the jackpot, which is good.’
Another tip when playing the local lottery is to buy in states that sell the fewest lottery tickets.
Speaking to WIRED, Ryan (Skip) Garibaldi said that choosing unpopular numbers, buying tickets from states that sell the least, and choosing the right scratch-offs increases the odds.
A study by LendingTree shows that Massachusetts residents will spend the most per capita on lottery tickets and scratch cards in 2020.
“Residents spent $805.30 per capita in 2020 – the latest data available – dwarfing the other northeastern states of New York ($455.93) and Rhode Island ($429.88),” the study reads.
And Georgia ($429.51) and Michigan ($408.51) followed suit.
At the lower end are North Dakota ($29.93), Wyoming ($39.08), Montana ($55.21), New Mexico ($60.00), and Oklahoma ($67.67).
Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Nevada and Utah are the only states that do not participate in the lottery.
“There’s a classic example from Oregon in 1999,” Garibaldi said.
“They had a $18,000,000 jackpot, and yet they didn’t sell that many tickets, and what that means is that if you buy a ticket in such a draw, it’s unlikely you’ll share the jackpot.”
Richard Lustig won the Florida local lottery four times for $1,038,499.92. He used carefully chosen sequence numbers and constantly used the same numbers
The mathematician also gave tips on how to win big on scratch cards, including using the internet to your advantage.
He recommends sites like scratchoff-odds.comso you can see specific tickets in your state and prices that have yet to be claimed.
But if you must win the lottery, Garibaldi suggests choosing a game that allows you to guess a four-digit number and bet the sixfold box.
“That means you’re going to bet on a four-digit number with repeated digits, like 1122 or 1212, and if you’re betting a six-digit box, it’s betting on all six possible spellings of a number with two ones in it. and two twos in it,” he said.
“If you do that, your chance of winning is one in 1,667, and in most states, if you make it, if you win that bet, you get $800, which means you have to go to a lottery office.
“You’ll probably lose money just so you know.”