Two Lotto Strategies

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It's hard to disagree that there is too much lottery advice available. Do this. Don't do that. It's a challenge to sort it all out. So, Professor Dolph enters the fray by describing some of the worst lottery advice.

My assistant today is that vivacious star of Buckeye TV, the ever popular Midwest poster ticket, the Ohio Classic Lotto, 6/49 lottery.

In the OH649 lottery there are a total of 13,983,816 possible wagers. Therefore, the chances of winning the lottery jackpot are 1 in 13,983,816. To win that elusive lottery jackpot, many people use a lottery strategy that makes little sense. At least, it doesn't make sense to a sharp gambler who is trying to increase his chances of winning the lottery jackpot. I'll prove my point by using some logic, common sense and basic math.

Foolish Lotto Strategy Number 1

Frankly, I don't understand what the attraction is but many people play all odd numbers. For example, they get all excited about playing 7-17-23-29-37-49 or 3-11-23-29-37-41. Perhaps if they used some good lottery software, they would soon discover, that dog doesn't hunt very often. Here's what I mean.

There are only 177,100 wagers that are made up of only odd numbers. This looks like a big number, but all of these wagers combined only represent 1.27% of all wagers! Therefore, 98.73% of the time, or 51 weeks out of the year, they didn't even have a chance of winning the lottery jackpot. They weren't even in the running. A year is a long time to go without feelin' any love!

For those of you that may have some doubts, the actual lottery drawings themselves back this up. In the last 279 drawings, over 2 1/2 years, all odd winning numbers occurred only 4 times! That's like fishin' for marlin in a mud puddle.

Foolish Lotto Strategy Number Two

That's right. You guessed it. Foolish lottery strategy number 2 is playing all even numbers. But, in the case of the OH649 lottery, you're in even worse shape playing all even numbers than you were playing all odd numbers. You see, because there are 49 numbers to choose from, there are fewer even numbers than odd numbers. As a result, there are only 134,596 wagers that are made up of only even numbers. That represents only 0.96% of all wagers. Therefore, over 99% of the time (in other words, every drawing except Christmas) the player didn't stand a chance of winning the lottery jackpot. Waiting a year just to be in the running to win requires more patience than most of us have.

The OH649 lottery proves my point for me. All even numbers occurred only 3 times in the last 279 drawings! That mud puddle just evaporated. So, if you're guilty of using these strategies, STOP! Wouldn't you be having more fun playing the lottery if you were in the running to win the lottery jackpot 99% of the time? Serious lottery players with good lottery software do this all the time.