How to win £50m on tonight’s mega Lottery

(well, at least have a better chance)

AT JUST after 8.30 this evening, someone in Britain could instantly become more than £50 million richer. Thanks to tonight’s largestever Lotto jackpot, whoever holds a ticket with all six winning numbers will be as wealthy as ex-england footballer Michael Owen, Hollywood actor Liam neeson or Fifty Shades Of Grey author e. L. James.

But even though millions will be buying tickets, what we know deep down is that the chances of hitting that jackpot are ridiculously low.

And since changes to the national Lottery last October, they have become lower still, as there are now 59 balls to choose from rather than 49.

This means that your odds of picking the right six numbers have risen from 13,983,816 to one to 45,057,474 to one.

Indeed, you are more than four times more likely to be struck by lightning in any given year — and this worsening of the odds has l ed to t he 13 consecutive rollovers which have resulted in the £50 million prize.

But is there any way we can improve our chances to become rich beyond our dreams?

And, better still, to ensure that even if we do hit the jackpot, we don’t have to share the win with anybody else who picks the same numbers?

Buy two tickets

eVerY time you buy a £2 ticket, you double your chances of winning. Of course, even if you buy 100 tickets, the odds of winning the jackpot are still just over 450,000 to one — the same chances of dying in a train crash this year.

Avoid birthdays MAnY people choose numbers that are their own or loved ones’ birthdays. This means that many only pick numbers that go up to 31 — ignoring nearly half the balls.

So if you want to increase your chances of not sharing a jackpot, select most of your numbers f r om t he r ange above 31. Although, sadly, that doesn’t mean you’re any more likely to pick the right numbers.

Mix things up

One reason we’ve gone so long without a winner may be that players haven’t changed their regular numbers since the extra ten balls were added last year. Don’t forget numbers now go up to 59.

Plump for the overdue numbers

PrOBABILITY can be a tricky concept to understand. Many believe that if a coin has landed on heads 100 times in a row, the chances of it being tails on the 101st toss are increased. They aren’t. The odds are still 50/50, as coins — like lottery numbers — don’t have memories.

However, some players still like the idea of picking balls that have not been selected in a while, believing they must come up sooner or later.

If you fancy this tactic, then pick numbers 5, 6, 16, 33, 36, 45, as the most recent of these — 36 — came up 70 days ago.

13 could be lucky

Here’S another theory that’s similar to the idea of picking the most overdue balls.

The laws of probability would suggest each ball should end up being selected as many times as every other ball, and if a ball hasn’t been chosen that often, it should come up again soon.

The statistics have been skewed by the introduction of ten more balls, which obviously have not been in play since the national Lottery began in 1994.

However, discounting these balls (50 to 59), then those that have come up the fewest times are 1, 13, 16, 20, 21, 37.

Of these, ‘unlucky’ 13 is the ball that has come up the least — just 219 times in 2,090 draws. So is 13 about to become someone’s very lucky number?

Should you pick frequent numbers?

IT doesn’t matter which six balls you pick for tonight, as the odds of a set of any given six numbers winning does not change from draw to draw.

But perhaps there is something to be said for going for the numbers that come up the most frequently. These are 23, 30, 33, 38, 40, 44. Of these, 23 has come up 284 times — 65 times more than number 13.

Club together

YeS, it’s a little predictable but joining or starting a syndicate massively boosts your chances of winning the jackpot. One in five top prizes in the Lotto and euroMillions are won by syndicates.

even though you’ll have to share the millions, at least you won’t suffer the envy that ‘Laura in Accounts’ has walked away with the lot.

Make sure your syndicate draws up an agreement to avoid arguments in the event of a win. Make life easier by downloading ‘syndicate pack Lotto’.

Buy your ticket late in the day

THe reason is simply because if you buy your ticket days in advance, you’ll have more chance of dying before the draw takes place than winning the jackpot!

Be popular

ACCOrDInG t o numbercrunching by risk analyst Dr Jonathan Clarke, the l east popular numbers chosen by players before last October were 32, 34, 39, 40, 46 and 48.

Dr Clark also suggests avoiding numbers that end in 7, as these tend to be more popular.

Get a Maths PhD

A MATHeMATICIAn called renato Gianella claimed that by applying complicated statistics and probability theories, it was possible to predict l ottery results.

By using a template that determines all the possible combinations of numbers, and that splits numbers into groups, the Brazili an observed that ‘ through experimentation, the method shows that it is possible to detect that the results of a lottery draw follow the same behaviour pattern as predicted by the Law of Large numbers...

Thus, the right choice of combinations can greatly increase your chances of picking the winning combination in your next lottery ticket’.

Up sticks to Birmingham

THere are more Lotto millionaires with Birmingham postcodes

than from anywhere else in Britain. If you can’t move there or get a Brummie aunt to buy a ticket, then consider the runners-up, Glasgow, Newcastle-upon and Belfast.

The town with the most ‘top-tier’ winners — those who have won prizes of more than £50,000 – is Romford.

London’s luckiest borough — with the most winners overall — is Enfield.

Re-train as a builder

STATISTICALLY, the jobs with the greatest numbers of j ackpot winners are in construction, administration or management.

Taxi and lorry-drivers also have a good record of picking winning numbers, as well as shop assistants and chefs.

The least frequent winners — almost certainly because they don’t play as much — are bankers, politician and estate agents.

Avoid 1,2,3,4,5,6

THE people who pick these balls think they are being clever, as they know that this set of numbers has just as much chance of winning the jackpot as any other set of six numbers. Unfortunately for them, 10,000 people do this every week.

So if these numbers do hit the jackpot tonight, then each person will only take home £5,040.

The power of positive thinking

OVER half of those who have won millions have admitted being ‘fairly or very optimistic’ characters, with nearly every winner claiming they ‘knew’ they were going to win. So you could just will it to happen!

The ultimate winning ticket

IF, SINCE the Lotto started in November 1994, you had entered a ticket in every draw with the numbers 3, 6, 13, 23, 27, 49, then you would have taken home £2,017,805.

That combination has won the jackpot once, matched 5 balls plus the bonus ball once, matched 4 balls twice, and three balls 41 times.

Change your name to John (or Margaret)

ACCORDING to Camelot, the most common name for a female jackpot winner is Margaret and John for men.

James, Peter, David, Michael, Robert, Paul, William and Stephen are all good candidates, as are Susan, Patricia, Mary, Christine, Elizabeth, Jean, Janet, Linda and Karen.

Holding out for another rollover

DON’T do that! Under the new regulations, t he Lotto must pay out t onight, even if all six balls are not matched.

I f that happens, then holders of tickets which match f i ve balls plus the bonus ball will win the jackpot.