Increase Your Chances of Winning the Mega Millions Jackpot
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So what do you reckon your chances of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are? Are you looking for a helping hand in making your number selection. After all, back in 2018, the Mega Millions Jackpot Lottery hit the $1.6 billion mark as it was still unclaimed. That’s an awful lot of wonga and anyone looking to win, like you, would love to have known an edge. Some kinda insider knowledge to let them get one step closer than anyone else, to winning.
Introduction: Increase Your Chances of Winning the Mega Millions Jackpot
Basic math and common sense would tell you the best way of increasing your chances of winning the Mega Millions is simply to buy more tickets. Yeah, this is a no-brainer. Buy one more tickets or buying 100 million more, will make the chances of holding that huge over-sized check, that much more possible. Keep in mind that your odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350, no matter which numbers you pick or where you buy your tickets. So, in truth, buying a couple more tickets, though mathematically will increase your odds, just remember that those odds are starting from a pretty tough place, according to the online jackpot site ratings.
Most Frequently Drawn Numbers
There’s a website called www.lottonumbers.com who spend their days analyzing all the 2,237 previously drawn Mega Millions lotteries. Why you might well ask? Well, since the first drawing in 1996, they are looking for patterns and for the numbers that are drawn more frequently than others. Yes, they are bonkers. And obviously have too much time on their hands. The draw is completely random and this whole website and it’s premise are built around the gambler’s fallacy. Simply put, this is the inability to think logically and clearly. Because you want a certain result so much, you start to construct illogical systems that you imagine might somehow change a result into your favor.
The Most Frequently Drawn Mega Millions Numbers Are:
2 – drawn 219 times
17 – drawn 218 times
31 – drawn 218 times
39 – drawn 214 times
4 – drawn 212 times
How many balls do you need to win the Mega Millions?The website also has a list on the most “overdue” numbers – the numbers which have gone the longest without being drawn. Again this is just plain nuts, as all numbers have an equal possibility of being drawn. By the way, the odds of winning are even lower today. In October 2017, the lottery company “tweaked” the odds to make them longer. Before that the odds were around 1 in 258.9 million compared with today’s 302.5 million. So the chances of winning the Mega Millions got even harder.
36 – last picked 153 days ago
55 – last picked 146 days ago
58 – last picked 146 days ago
5 – last picked 132 days ago
37 – last picked 129 days ago
Chances of Winning the Mega Millions Jackpot: Smaller Pots
There are smaller pots with slightly better odds. This is from the Mega Millions site:
Second Place (5 matching numbers): 1 in 12,607,306
Third Place (4 matching numbers with Mega Ball): 1 in 931,001
Fourth Place (4 matching numbers): 1 in 38,792
Fifth Place (3 matching numbers with Mega Ball): 1 in 14,547
Sixth Place (3 matching numbers): 1 in 606
Seventh Place (2 matching numbers with Mega Ball): 1 in 693
Eighth Place (1 matching number with Mega Ball): 1 in 89
Ninth Place (1 matching numbers with Mega Ball): 1 in 37
Chances of Winning the Mega Millions Jackpot: The Gambler’s Fallacy:
As any roulette player can tell you, the little ball will fall where it falls and any number being picked more or less frequently has no bearing on which slot on the wheel it will fall into. Statistically, every number has exactly the same chance of being drawn next. As an aside, many casino roulette tables have a display of the previous 20 or so numbers that hit. This is for those punters whose understanding of voodoo is better than their understanding of math.
The Ticket Seller
Another silliness is to try and improve your chances of winning the Mega Millions by purchasing a ticket from a seller who previously sold a winning ticket. Now, looking over the numbers, we can see that Ohio has had 19 Mega Millions jackpot winners since 2003, that is, according to lottery officials. Officials gave us a list of the Cleveland-area stores that sold a jackpot-winning ticket, who won and how that ticket was sold. For all you nutters out there, here it is below.
The ‘Luckiest’ Lottery Vendors
Tuesday, March 12, 2013: $41 million winning ticket sold at Deli 4 Less, Westlake. Manual pick ticket. This prize was claimed in trust by John P. Thomas, trustee of The March Madness Trust.
Friday, Aug. 5, 2011: $99 million jackpot prize sold at Speedway in Jefferson, OH. The win was claimed by a work pool from KraftMaid in Middlefield. Auto pick ticket.
Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2010: $25-million jackpot prize sold at Marc’s #67 in Broadview Heights, OH. The win was claimed by the Gravina Island Trust, Matthew F. Kadish, trustee. Auto pick ticket.
Friday, Jan. 6, 2006. $15 million jackpot sold at Chuck’s Carryout, Norwalk. Winning ticket claimed by Providence Blind Trust, John E. Rosino, trustee. Manual pick ticket.
Friday, June 3, 2005. Emery Food Mart, Warrenville Heights. $106 million jackpot prize claimed by The Kevin G. Robertson Declaration of Trust, Kevin G. Robertson, trustee. Auto pick ticket.
Tips From a Lottery Winner
One of the best known lottery experts is Richard Lustig. This Florida man claims to have won seven lottery jackpots. He is now getting rich, though not from lotteries. But from his book, “Learn to Increase Your Chances of Winning the Lottery.” See the problem here? These are always very suspect. First off, many of these authors claim to have won the jackpot, but never reveal the when and the where. Also, if you had a secret sauce or strategy for winning, then why would you share it? Essentially all these books are just selling snake oil. But, our job is to see what they have to say. Richard Lustig’s ideas for winning are:
The List
1. Play the same numbers at every drawing.
2. Never buy fewer than 10 tickets.
3. If they are random numbers, buy them in a row and from the same machine.
4. Set a budget, and do not exceed it, no matter how big the drawing.
5. Never spend your rent or grocery money on tickets.Duh!
6. However, it is now easier than ever to go over budget, due to more and more states accepting credit cards.
As you can see, the last three of these recommendations have absolutely nothing to do with your chances of winning the Mega Millions. If you happened to buy the book thinking you would be swimming in cash at the next Mega Million’s draw, well, you should ask for our money back from the bookstore.
Conclusion: Increase Your Chances of Winning the Mega Millions Jackpot
Up until just a few years ago, you needed to bring cash to the lottery/convenience store in order to purchase your tickets. But you can do the whole caboodle from your sofa these days. Just use your credit card and there’s no need to stand in line, particularly when the jackpot starts to climb and more punters want to try their luck. Just to reiterate, your odds of drawing the top Mega Millions prize is a staggering 1 in 302,575,350, no matter where you buy your tickets or which numbers you pick. On the other hand, someone does actually win it. So there’s always that fact that shouldn’t put you off from trying your chances of winning the Mega Millions jackpot. You can try that any time at the online jackpot sites. Good Luck!.
