How to Win a Fortune in the National Lottery

o you want to win a fortune? Of course you do - who wouldn't. Even people who are already rich can find something to do with a few million extra. Well, there's good news and bad news. First the bad news: despite the many books written on the subject, there is no way to guarantee making a fortune in the lottery. Face it, if you knew a system you would use it rather than waste your time writing about it, wouldn't you? Obviously, the royalties from the books are worth more than the method itself.

No, the whole point is that the balls are completely random. Camelot make far too much money to risk any suggestion that the numbers can be predicted. It wouldn't be the first time a British national lottery had been closed down - it is not well known that the first one was running over a century ago, but was wound up amidst allegations of corruption.

There are things you can do to improve your chances of winning a small prize, or more accurately to reduce your chances of winning nothing, but these are really excercises for syndicates. By entering a block of numbers you can be certain of winning £10, but it will cost you nearly £60 to do it, so there doesn't seem much point. When it comes to the big one, your chances are exactly as good as the next person's.

But here's the good news: you can take steps to see that when your numbers do come up it really is big. Back when the UK National Lottery was only a few weeks old there was an £8 million jackpot which was shared by so many winners that it was barely going to pay for a modest suburban semi, let alone a jet-set lifestyle and permanent retirement. The trouble was that the numbers were extremely popular choices.

Picking lottery numbers is rather like choosing shares to invest in - you have to predict what everyone else will do. The difference is that on the stock market you try to do the same only first, whereas in the lottery you make sure that you do something different. The idea is that the whole pile is yours, and you share with nobody.

Before we explore the art of second guessing the masses, here (for those who don't already know the routine) is how the National Lottery works. Each player essentially pays £1 a time to guess which six balls will be the first to emerge from a kind of giant bubble gum machine on the following Wednesday or Saturday. The machine initially contains 49 numbered balls, and in fact seven will pop out. The primary objective is to guess the first six and win a share of about £10 million. If you guess five of the six and your other guess matches the seventh "bonus" ball you win a rather smaller prize, five and four correct guesses netting progressively smaller hauls, until three get you a fixed £10. Technically the organisers reserve the right not to pay the full £10 in the event that everyone gets lucky at the same time and they can't meet the debt - only a possibility in the eyes of a mathematician! So, here are the principles that will set you apart from the crowd -

1. Forget your anniversary. An enormous number of people base their numbers on birthdays, anniversaries etc. Avoid choosing all of your numbers from the 1 - 31 range, and particularly from the 1 - 12 range, which are months as well.
2. All balls are equal (1). The six numbers at the top of the draw frequency table are considered by some to be more likely to emerge again. You, of course, should spurn them.
3. All balls are equal (2). There are those who reason that because all the numbers have equal odds, those at the bottom of the frequency table have, paradoxically, a greater chance of being drawn (to even things up). Impaired thinking leading to an impaired share of the wonga.
4. Lightening never strikes twice. Well actually it just might - last weeks numbers are just as likely to come up again as any others, but you'd be surprised at how many people put a pound on this happening.
5. Don't make patterns, especially multiples of five as these appear as a line on the entry slip - an obvious tactic.
6. Don't get pushy with probabilities. Have you heard anyone saying "I always pick one through to six. After all, it has just the same chance of winning"? They are absolutely correct (which puts the odds into perspective) but unfortunately a recent survey suggested that some 10,000 people have had the same idea, each thinking nobody else would be that brave, and reducing the jackpot to a measly £1000 each. 44 through to 49 is unlikely to fare much better.
7. Pick 'em fresh. It goes without saying that if you have a regular set of numbers, stick with them. If they come up and you recognise them you'll kick yourself. If you're not in this position, you can take account of the shifting requirements of rules 2, 3 and 4 by picking new numbers every time, plus you won't be sweating if you miss the 7:30pm deadline.

One final point about rules 1-6: you don't need to avoid using these numbers completely, just don't choose your entry entirely from any one group. Oh, and if you do get lucky, remember who advised you!

For those who would like to know what, statistically, their return should be, here are the odds of winning -

Result	Formula	Probability
3 correct	20 * (43 * 42 * 41 / 6) * (6! * 43! / 49!)	8,815 in 499,422 or roughly 1 in 57
4 correct	15 * (43 * 42 / 2) * (6! * 43! / 49!)	645 in 665,896 or roughly 1 in 1032
5 correct	6 * 43 * (6! * 43! / 49!)	43 in 2,330,636 or roughly 1 in 54,201
5 correct + bonus	6 * 6! * 43! / 49!	1 in 2,330,636
6 correct	6! * 43! / 49!	1 in 13,983,816

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