How to up your chances of winning the lottery
Casino Guru CEO Jan Kovac offers 3 tips on how lottery players can improve their odds of winning
With the Powerball jackpot climbing to $800 million, lottery hopefuls may be wondering how to improve the odds of winning.
Playing a single ticket in a 6-number, 49-ball lottery drawing, for example, offers a 1 in 13,983,816 chance of winning. Casino Guru Founder and CEO Jan Kovac confirmed to FOX Business that chances of winning a lottery are extremely low, but it’s not an impossibility.
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"Lotteries have fixed odds, which means that the chance of any one ticket winning the jackpot is always the same for any given lottery, regardless of the numbers you choose or anything else," said Kovac. "That said, there are some things you can do to be better off statistically."
Here are three things lottery players can do to try and improve their odds of winning.
1. Buy more tickets
"You can increase your overall chances of winning by purchasing more tickets," Kovac said. "Your chance of winning is 10-times higher if you purchase 10 tickets instead of just one. That said, I would not advise people to do this, as gambling can be dangerous. It is important to approach it carefully."
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2. Time your bets
"You can increase your long-term expected value by betting at the correct time," Kovac explained. "Lotteries often have jackpots that grow over time, while the chances of winning remain the same. Therefore, betting when the jackpot is high is more advantageous from the mathematical perspective, despite the actual chance of winning being the same.
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3. Go after smaller jackpots
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"With some lotteries, you can get better chances than with others," Kovac said. "Each lottery has its own probability of hitting the jackpot. The bigger the jackpot, the lower your chances of hitting it, and vice versa. At least that’s the general rule."