Trust the American TV show producers to make a show about lottery winners and other people who won some big prize money in one way or the other! These are some really interesting shows though, not least of which reasons is because the people featured are real and therefore legitimise the realistic chances of actually winning the lottery. It’s possible…
What are the actual chances of winning though? Should we rather refer to it as one chance as opposed to pluralising it – i.e. chance as opposed to chances?
Well, let’s get a bit technical for a second and explore exactly how one works out their chances of winning the lottery and cashing-in big, big time!
It all depends on how many numbers are in the set to be drawn, in addition to the number of numbers from which to choose. Heesh – that’s a lot of “numbers.” Okay, so if your face is getting scrunched up in confusion, let’s go through an example to clarify…
Let’s say the specific lottery you’re seeking to try your luck on requires you to select six numbers, with each number being drawn from 1-49. Assuming, as is common with lotteries from around the world, that a number cannot be repeated, you would proceed to work out the odds of winning as follows:
If you select just one set of numbers then it’s 1 divided by (49 x 48 x 47 x 46 x 45 x 44).
It’s a scary decimal number, isn’t it? So if you play with two sets of numbers, the odds don’t increase in any way that’s close to what can be called significant, do they (2 divided by (49 x 48 x 47 x 46 x 45 x 44))? The same applies if you play with a set of 10, 20, 400, or even 1,000!
Don’t let that deter you though…
Yes, the chances of winning are closer to zero than they are to the nearest whole number (one), but that shouldn’t deter you from trying your luck. That’s the reason it’s referred to as exactly that – trying your luck…
On the flip side of the coin, there’s a reason for the existence of the saying “You will NEVER win the lottery if you don’t buy the ticket!” So buy the ticket, even if it means only buying one set of lucky numbers with which to play.
Go big and pursue some of the biggest jackpots on offer. If you buy a ticket for the Spanish Christmas Lottery, for instance, you put yourself in line with a chance to walk away with an immense amount of money many of us can only dream of.
The one secret to possible success in lotteries of any size is that of consistency though. Stories of lucky winners almost always feature people who religiously buy tickets out of habit and when the news that they’ve won hits them, it catches them completely on the blind side.
So choose one lucky set of numbers and try your luck with as many lotteries as you can, despite the seemingly negligible chances of winning. Give yourself that chance.
