Tested lever by lever, "lottery draw odds" comes down to a few levers. A player who wants better lottery odds has only a few real levers: how many tickets to buy, which game to play and how to choose the numbers. Two of those change something and one changes nothing at all. Sorting the levers that move the odds from the habits that only feel like control saves money, and it shows what a ticket actually buys ahead of the draw.
Odds of winning lottery quick pick tickets and tickets with own numbers are exactly the same. The machine picks a random combination and a player picks a chosen one, and the draw treats every combination alike. Chosen numbers differ in one way only: birthdays and patterns are popular, so a winning ticket built from them is more likely to share its prize. Random numbers spread a ticket away from the crowd and do nothing else.
Can you increase your odds of winning the lottery by choosing the game? That is the lever that works best. Odds of winning each lottery game differ widely: a draw of five numbers from thirty five is far kinder than six from fifty nine, and a small pool with a small jackpot pays more often. What lottery has the best odds is usually the one with the smallest pool and the smallest top prize, since the two travel together.
Birthdays and patterns are picked by many players, so a winning ticket built from them is more likely to share the prize with others.
Games with smaller pools, such as five from thirty five rather than six from fifty nine, pay out more often and usually carry smaller top prizes.
The pool alone sets jackpot odds, so a record rollover is just as hard to hit; the only change is more players and a greater chance of splitting the prize.
No. Balls carry no memory of earlier results, so hot and cold lists, gaps and past draws predict no better than plain guessing.