Not everything you hear about the lottery is true
There are many types of myths, misconceptions, and urban legends surrounding the lottery that sometimes it is hard to tell the truth from the fiction. Many people base their lottery playing or lottery ticket purchase according to those myths, So let’s bust a few myths right here and now.
• If you always play the same numbers for every draw, eventually you will win – All numbers have an equal chance of being pulled, and theoretically, yes, eventually your number sequence might be pulled and you might win the jackpot. So if you keep playing the same numbers over and over, in reality, you might win in three hundred, a thousand, or a million years from now. Or the next draw. You never know what the odds of that happening are but are so very much against you.
• When there is a smaller jackpot you have a better chance of winning – The size of the jackpot has absolutely no bearing on your odds of winning. The odds of winning any prize on the lottery is the same for every draw and is not affected whatsoever by the size of the jackpot.
• The lottery is a poor tax – The lottery is not a tax on anyone who plays, regardless of their financial status in life. It is important to note that a tax is a mandatory payment that must be made to the government. Playing the lottery is strictly a voluntary endeavour. Nobody is being forced to buy lottery tickets. It is each individual’s decision to do so.
• You can’t win the lottery twice – Sure you can. You can even jackpots back to back. You can win as many times as luck shines upon you. Many players have done it. Maybe it was a fluke, maybe it was lady luck shining down on them.
• The lottery only benefits those who win – Not in the slightest. Along with the people who win the lottery, money also goes to charities, schools, athletics, health services, local community assistance programs, and a myriad of other agencies and organizations. The lottery benefits a wide assortment of recipients.
• Certain lottery retailers are luckier than others – When a winner of a lottery is publicized, many people believe that the retailer the winning ticket was purchased at is one that is luckier than any other retailer, hence they will only buy their tickets from that retailer, hoping luck will strike twice. But again, with the numbers being generated or pulled being totally random, the retailer that sold any winning ticket whatsoever will also be random.
• You have to buy a lot of tickets to have any chance of winning – Totally untrue. You only need one ticket that matches the winning numbers that are pulled. In fact, you would need several hundred to several thousand tickets to have an extra chance of winning than with one.
• To win you need to select your own tickets and not use quick picks – Whether you pick your own numbers or let the computer pick numbers for you, your odds of winning never change. Picking your numbers randomly is the same as the computer picking them. It is totally random either way.
These are just some of the most common lottery myths that are out there. Remember that lottery myths are created to explain how players don’t win, leaving out both math and probability from the equation. So toss those myths and simply enjoy playing the lottery. Although everything about it is random, the final result could be a big win for you.