7. Check Your Numbers

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It’s hard to win if you don’t know what the winning numbers are. You have a year to claim the winnings, so don’t throw an old ticket away without checking it first. Who knows, you just might be the holder of a multi-million dollar ticket. It also never hurts to double check a ticket, just in case you missed checking it the first time.

6. Don’t Give up after the First Try

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You can’t win anything if you don’t play, right? Just because your first ticket isn’t a winner, this doesn’t mean your next one won’t be. Some people consider playing the lotto to be a game of chance where the odds of winning are slim. I never found playing to do me any harm, since I don’t go crazy and buy 20 tickets for every game. I think most things are harmless when done in moderation.

5. Watch out for Scammers

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There have been quite a few cases where convenience store owners were accused of stealing lottery tickets. The scam involved the store owner claiming a lottery ticket wasn’t a winner, when it actually was. The owner would then claim the ticket and get the winnings, no matter how small they were. I always check my ticket myself, instead of relying on the store owner to tell me if it’s a winner or not.

4. Don’t Always Listen to What Your Friend Tells You

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Sure, she might be trying to help out, but sometimes going with your gut instinct pays off. Haven’t you ever felt compelled to choose certain numbers when playing the lottery and they turned out to be winning numbers? I don’t ask for suggestions from friends. However, I do occasionally let the computer pick numbers for me. I wonder if this might fall into a similar category as letting a friend choose your numbers.

3. Have One Set of Numbers You Play Often

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A couple of times when I’ve played the lottery, a few of the numbers I chose the previous week showed up on the current week’s winning ticket. Whenever I decide to play the lotto, I have a specific set of numbers I pick each time, as well as choosing a new group to go along with these.

2. Don’t Choose a Specific Sequence of Numbers

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Do you constantly see winning lotto numbers that follow some type of sequence? I have to say that I can’t recall any set of winning numbers that went by 2s, 3s, or any other kind of pattern. I’m sure there is a record of all the past winning numbers where this has occurred, but it was by sheer luck. So far, there has yet to be a specific algorithm to follow for picking winning lotto numbers.

1. Play Multiple Tickets

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Of course the more you play, the higher your chance will be of winning. This is often why groups of people go in together in buying a bunch of tickets. If a large collection of individuals are increasing the odds that someone they know will win the lotto, then the entire group benefits. It’s like buying 10 raffle tickets for the quilt at the local bazaar instead of only one.

People can play the lotto for years and never win a dime. On the other hand, there are many instances where a person chose random numbers or had the computer do it and won on the very first ticket. I personally think luck has a lot to do with it. How do you feel about the odds of winning the lotto? Do you have a special tip that works for you most of the time?

Top Photo Credit: JAMES HALLROBINSON