How to up the odds of winning a lottery: Harvard professor

How to up the odds of winning a lottery: Harvard professor

Mega Millions and Powerball jackpots totaling over $400 Million are up this weekend. Harvard statistics professor speaks out about lottery odds

Lucky lottery players may be able to win this weekend’s Mega Millions or Powerball jackpots, which have both risen above $400 Million each.

Friday night’s Mega Millions drawing will award a $405 million top prize, along with a lumpsum option for nearly $295 millions. Saturday’s Powerball jackpot, which is worth $457 million, has a lumpsum of more than $331million.

For either prize to be awarded, you must win a staggering amount of money. Mega Millions’ jackpot odds are 1 in 302.5 Million. Powerball’s odds for winning the top prize is 1 in 292.2 Million.

Many lottery players resort to tactics in order to improve their chances at winning. This includes playing every week, using “lucky”, numbers like a birthday, and playing the same numbers everytime in the hope they’ll eventually win. Quick Pick is where the lottery machines randomly select a number of numbers.

However, it is important to distinguish between what people believe will work from what is actually mathematical probability.

According to Harvard Statistics Professor Dr. Mark Glickman there is one proven method to increase your chances at winning the lottery. That is, buying more tickets to each game will only improve your odds, he previously stated to CNBC Make It.

Because the odds of winning any lottery draw remain the same regardless of how many numbers are selected, or how many tickets you buy. No matter how often you play the lottery or if it’s your first time buying a lottery ticket on an impulse, the chances of winning any particular drawing or scratch-off are the same.

Even if you win the lottery once, your odds of winning the next drawing will be the same regardless. Ask multiple winners like Peggy Dodson. She won a $1,000,000 jackpot in 2019 with a MaxaMillion scratch-off lottery lotto ticket she purchased from the same Pennsylvania convenience stores where she had bought another $100,000 winning scratch-off ticket two years before.

Glickman said that if someone wins the lottery once, then their chances of winning it again are the same as if the person has never won the lottery before. “In other terms, the chances of winning the lottery in future are not increased or decreased by having won the lottery before.”

Also, buying lottery tickets regularly — whether you do it every day or every few weeks — will not increase your chances to win because all lotteries are different.

You won’t get any better chances by buying more tickets for one drawing. This is especially true when you consider the odds of winning the Mega Millions or Powerball jackpots, which are about 300 million to 1. A five-in-302 million chance of winning Mega Millions’ current jackpot of $405 Millions. While these odds are better than purchasing one ticket, they still make you more likely to strike lightning.

According to Dr. Lew Lew, a Georgia Tech professor, buying more tickets will mean that the “investment you make by playing multiple game also goes up” and that payouts in a real lotto may vary. Lefton told CNBC Make It that sometimes it is not worth investing more in higher-quality tickets.

Lefton shared that “My advice is to not play the lottery and hope to win.” However, it is fun to play the lottery and think you will win. That’s an entirely different approach. It’s like any other gambling. You should only gamble what you can afford.

If you are fortunate enough to win the lottery, financial advisors recommend you to choose the lump sum option and to invest your winnings long-term in stocks rather than take multi-year payments. Whatever your winnings, you will face a large tax hit. Any lottery winnings exceeding $5,000 are subject to a minimum 24% federal tax, which is withheld at the IRS by the IRS, before the money ever reaches the winner’s bank account. State taxes vary by state.