Lottery Strategies - How To Make That Bonus Number Choice
If you play the Mega Millions lottery, you are always faced with the problem of what to do about that troublesome Bonus number. Analyzing the past winning lotto numbers is one way to improve your chances of winning the lottery. But, the amount of Bonus number data is very slim and it is challenging to identify any bonus number patterns or trends. Guessing seems to be the option of choice for most lottery players. Happily, not everyone is guessing. You could play smart. That implies playing the odds. Here is how it's done.
First, you create a chronological list of the Bonus numbers. This list is comprised of numbers from 1 to 46. The size of the list is up to you but, be sure it is large enough so that one more drawing cannot have a consequential impact on the results. Typically, the past 100 drawings would meet this requirement but, the larger the better. In this example, the list contains the last 146 Bonus numbers.
I put these into a spreadsheet to analyze. Analyzing Bonus numbers tends to be a challenge because, with only one Bonus number per drawing, there is very little data to work with. But, I always uncover something interesting and the Mega Millions lottery didn't disappoint. Here's what I found.
How often lottery numbers repeat themselves is always valuable information. I wanted to know the same about the Bonus numbers. I found that Bonus numbers repeated back to back 6 times in 146 drawings. Eight times the Bonus number was a repeat from the previous 2 drawings. Etc. So, how does this help? Good question.
The last 5 Bonus numbers repeat 10% of the time in the Mega Millions lottery. This means that 90% of the time the Bonus number is not one of the last 5 numbers but from a 41 number list of the remaining pool. On the average, you will be right 90% of the time by selecting your Bonus number from this list. So, while everyone else have odds of 1 in 46, you have odds of 1 in 41, 90% of the time.
Let's take it a step further. About 20% of the time the Bonus number is a repeat of one of the last 10 Bonus numbers. Therefore, 80% of the time the Bonus number will not be in that list. Therefore, if you select your Bonus number from this 36 number pool, you will be right 80% of the time. On the average, you will be right in 8 of the next 10 drawings.
No doubt, some curmudgeon out there is going to say, 'That will never work.' Our positive friend is obviously not a professional gambler. You see, this is the same thing all professional gamblers are doing. They are playing the odds. Over time, this will pay dividends.
Not convinced yet? This data was obtained from the Mega Million lottery website. In the last Mega Millions drawing a total of 476,973 wagers had the Bonus number correct. But, if all players used the 36 number pool, there was an 80% chance that 609,466 wagers would have the winning Bonus number. That's 132,493 more people with wagers containing the winning Bonus number. Even if the players got no other numbers correct, at $2.00 a pop, that's a payout of $264,986 more than the lottery officials had planned on. In other words, on the average, in 4 out of every 5 drawings, the lottery would have to pay $264,986 more.
Lottery strategies, like finding lottery number patterns and trends, are examples of ways to help you improve your odds of winning the lottery jackpot. It's simple, it's easy and anyone can do it.
Professor Dolph is a world-famous lottery expert, lecturer, columnist and the author of the breakthrough lottery software known as LONA. The best lottery software on the market will give you a refreshing slant on the lottery.
Click the XML Icon Above to Receive Gambling & Casinos Articles Via RSS!
