Entries Tagged as 'MM556'

Lottery Strategies - Mega Millions Bonus Number Wrap Up

Mega Millions Bonus Number Wrap Up

Lottery Number AdvisorIn the last two post, Lottery Strategies for Mega Millions Bonus Number and Lottery Strategies - Mega Millions and the Bonus Number, I presented some ideas on how to handle that troublesome Bonus Number. Hopefully, the information will help you improve our chances of winning the lottery jackpot. If you are just tuning in, you should go back an read these posts to bring you up to speed.

Bless their hearts, I received some feedback from some people who simply don’t understand gambling and playing the odds. They apparently want a 100% money back guarantee. They want to be able to push a button and win the lottery every time. There is no such thing as a 100% guarantee; that’s why it’s called gambling. All a gambler can do is play the odds. And, if you’re good at it, over the long haul, it works.

So, when I showed them the odds were 5:1 (80%) that the next Bonus Number would not be one of the last 10 bonus numbers, that wasn’t good enough for them. They are not going to waste their time on such nonsense. So, let me ask them this. If smart money says the odds are 5:1 that the Yankees will win the World Series (sorry Philly - just an example) are they going to ignore that? If smart money says that the favorite to win the Kentucky Derby has odds of 5:1, are they going to ignore that? Some people are just not gamblers and should stay away; far, far away.

But, for those of you with your feet planted firmly on the ground and with a good head on your shoulders, I’m sure you will understand what I am about to show you. You can actually improve your chances while covering all of the bases! Here’s how it’s done.

For example, if you are playing 20 wagers in the next drawing, then take 80% of those (16 wagers) and select your Bonus Numbers from the 36 number list we discussed in the last post. For the remaining 4 wagers, select your Bonus Numbers from the list of the last 10 Bonus Numbers. Now, you are playing the odds and covering all of the bases. This is often times referred to as hedging your bets.

Please, please, please. Don’t email me complaining that this is nonsense. This is exactly what is done by professional traders in the futures market every single day. They protect themselves from a sudden and unforeseen event by playing both sides. Farmers (typically very conservative) do this to financially protect themselves from a crop failure. This is just basic common sense business practice used around the world everyday.

The lottery is the hardest game in the world to win with outrageous odds. The only thing you can do is improve your chances of winning the lottery jackpot. That’s it. There are no guarantees; no absolutes. So, if your spring is wound a little to tight, try to relax and enjoy playing the game. It’s fun playing the lottery. Just don’t take it too seriously. Have fun with it.

Tags: Lottery Strategies by Professor Dolph
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Lottery Strategies for Mega Millions Bonus Number

Mega Millions Bonus Number

Lottery Number AdvisorIn the last post, Lottery Strategies - Mega Millions and the Bonus Number, we discussed the problem facing many lottery players; What to do about that Bonus number. We all want to improve our chances of winning the lottery jackpot and that annoying little Bonus number is there tormenting us.

So, I analyzed the last 146 Bonus numbers from the Mega Millions lottery using an Excel spreadsheet to see if I could discover something that could help us out. Analyzing the Bonus number is always problematic because, with only one number per drawing, there is very little data to work with. But, I persevered, not really expecting to find very much. But, as lotteries always do to me, I was surprised. In fact, I looking at including a similar bonus number analysis in my next product release. Here’s what I found.

Mega Millions Bonus Number Analysis

Mega Millions Bonus Number Analysis

My goal was to find how often Bonus numbers repeated themselves. For instance, column 1 shows how often Bonus numbers repeated from the last drawing. The answer, 6 times in 146 drawings. Column 2 shows that Bonus numbers repeated from the last 2 drawings 8 times. Etc. About now, some of you are asking, ‘OK. But, how does this help me?’ Fair question. Here’s how.

Look at column 5. About 10% of the time the Bonus number is a repeat of one of the last 5 Bonus numbers. That means that 90% of the time the Bonus number is not from that list of 5 numbers but from a 41 number list of the remaining pool. Therefore, if we select our Bonus number from this 41 number pool, we will be right 90% of the time. On the average, we will be right in 9 of the next 10 drawings. So, while the odds for correctly picking the Bonus number for everyone else playing the Mega Millions lottery are 1 in 46, our odds are 1 in 41.

Let’s do the same thing for column 10. The odds are around 20%. Therefore, if we play a 1 out of 36 game instead of a 1 out of 46 game, our strategy will be a good one 80% of the time. That’s 4 out of every 5 drawings. Now, some curmudgeon out there is going to say, ‘That’s no big deal’. He is obviously not a professional gambler. Because, what we are doing here is the same thing all professional gamblers are doing,  ‘playing the odds’. Over time, over the long haul, this pays dividends.

Still not convinced? Then, listen to this. In the last Mega Millions drawing a total of 482,143 wagers had the Bonus number correct. We’ll assume they all selected the Bonus number from the 46 number pool. If everyone had played the 1 out of 36 lottery strategy, there was an 80% chance that the total number of wagers with the Bonus number would skyrocket to 616,017! That’s 133,874 more wagers with the winning Bonus number. Even if the players got no other numbers correct, at $2.00 a pop, that’s a payout of $267,748 more than the lottery officials had planned on.

Finally, a Bonus number lottery strategy that works. So, should you play the usual 1 out of 46 game or are you going to switch to the 1/36 game?

Tags: Lottery Strategies by Professor Dolph
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