The National Lottery seem like such a simple game. All you have to do is pick 6 numbers between 1 and 49. There are drawings held twice a week on Wednesday and Saturday. If during these drawings the numbers that re pulled match the six numbers that you selected you are a winner. You and anyone else that has picked the winning combination of numbers will split the big jackpot.
The biggest jackpot ever won in the National Lottery is the £44,008,610 that was won on January 6, 1996 by three separate people. The minimum jackpot for the lottery is £10,000,000. Since the tickets only cost a pound, it is easy to see why 70% of the people in the United Kingdom play the game.
Before you start counting your money, you might want to understand the secrets and patterns that go with the National Lottery. The game has been unchanged since it first was introduced in November of 1994. That gives statisticians plenty of information to make some very good guesses about what will happen with the game. Here are some of the things that not everyone knows about the game.
- The odds of winning the big jackpot are one in 13,983,816.
- The odds of winning any prize during a drawing are one in 54
- On average one number will repeat from the previous drawing 44% of the time
- The money is paid out as a tax free lump sum
There are some people that think they have figured out how to win at the lottery. There are plenty of strategies that have been used. Some of the patterns that people use when betting include:
- Odd and even strategy – It is suggested that a player select an equal number of odd and even numbers
- High and low strategy – Spreading the numbers out evenly across the spectrum of numbers is often a wise strategy
- Group numbers – When you look at the winning numbers, you will notice groups of numbers that always seem to be missing. It might be the 20’s that do not appear very often or something similar. This can help when choosing the numbers.
- Play the sum of the numbers – 70% of all of the winning numbers will have a sum of between 115 and 185 when they are added together.
- Hot number – Playing numbers that are appearing more often is a good way to increase the odds. Numbers that have been out for less than 4 games are 50% more likely to show again.
While these secrets may help choose the winning numbers, there are also strategies to avoid that will make it more likely for you to lose.
- Never bet 6 consecutive numbers – It has never happened
- Avoid playing a winning combination again – A combination of numbers is only drawn once every 134,459 years.
- Don’t use the quick pick – You can do a better job when you do some research to choose your numbers.
There is one thing that is not necessarily a secret, but is essential to winning. In order to win the National Lottery, you have to buy a ticket. There is no way around that.
