Harvard professor reveals best ways to increase chances of winning the lottery
Callum Jones
Featured Image Credit: Joe Raedle/Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
For you lottery players out there, a Harvard Professor has revealed the best ways to increase your chances of winning a large sum of money.
Your chances of winning the lottery are actually pretty slim - well, one in $302.5 million for the Mega Millions jackpot to be precise.
As a result, it is highly unlikely any of us will win a massive fortune in our lifetime.
However, one lucky lottery winner could strike it big this weekend, after it was announced both the Mega Millions and Powerball jackpots have climbed above a whopping $400m a piece this weekend.
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Friday night's Mega Millions draw had a top prize of $405m, while Saturday's Powerball jackpot stands at a sizeable $457m.
Many players employ tactics they think will help them win big, while others just accept that the lottery is just purely luck.
Harvard statistics professor Dr. Mark Glickman previously told CNBC Make It that there is just one proven way of boosting your chances of winning - and to be honest, it's pretty obvious.
So, the only way of improving your chances is by buying more tickets for each game.
That is because the odds remain the same if you buy just one ticket for a game, no matter what numbers you may decide on.
If someone already wins the lottery, then the chance that the person wins the lottery a second time will be exactly the same as the probability they win the lottery if they had not previously won the lottery before,” Glickman told CNBC's Make It.
"In other words, having previously won the lottery does not improve or make less likely the chance of winning the lottery in the future."
As all the lotteries are independent, it does not matter if you buy a ticket every day or every month, your odds going into each draw are the exact same as everyone else.
Dr. Lew Lefton, a faculty member at Georgia Tech’s School of Mathematics, added: "My advice is don’t play the lottery and expect to win. That said, it can be fun to play the lottery and imagine you win. That’s a different approach, and it’s just like any other gambling: You should only be willing to spend what you can afford to lose."
While winning the lottery is a near-impossible dream for the majority of us, some people have somehow managed to win it twice.
Some luck, eh?
Please gamble responsibly. For help, support and advice about problem gambling, call the National Problem Gambling Helpline on 1-800-GAMBLER, 24/7.