Still, the odds that you’ll win the lottery are slim. For example, the odds of your Powerball ticket winning the jackpot are one in 292 million. Even when you play Europe’s biggest lottery EuroMillions, the jackpot odds are one in 140 million. Seeing that your chances of winning are that bad, you could hesitate to buy tickets. But you do anyways. How can you resist taking a chance on winning such a life-changing prize?
It is obvious that the more lottery tickets you buy, the better your chances of winning. With draws taking place twice a week on most lotteries, the cost of buying a large number of tickets could be quite expensive. A way of improving your odds as well as save on the cost is by playing the lottery with your friends. Two best friends, Paula Barraclough and Lorraine Smith from Sunderland, have been purchasing lottery tickets together for over 17 years. In February 2017, their inexpensive £2 Lucky Dip ticket, purchased on the spur of the moment when Lorraine discovered that she had a £2 coin in her pocket, won a £15m jackpot in the Lotto.
And then there are the friends who shared a $1 million Virginia Lottery prize in August 2016. Jennifer Molina and Lucinda Britt purchased a ticket together using numbers based on a combination of their family’s birthdays.
Yet another story of friends winning a lottery jackpot comes from Canada. Three long-time friends had been playing the same numbers for 22 years when they won a CAD$3.6 Lotto 6/49 prize in March 2016. Their number selection was based on family birthdates, as well as their ages.
It is also possible to increase your odds of winning if you purchase tickets as a lottery syndicate. When people play the lottery as part of a syndicate, each of them is actually purchasing a share of the tickets. When they win, all syndicate members share the prizes. Playing a lottery syndicate gives you better odds but reduces the cost of your participation in the draws.
There are numerous stories of lottery syndicates that have won big prizes. In November 2016, twenty workers at a Tennessee manufacturing plant shared a $420 million Powerball jackpot after playing together for eight years. As a group, they bought tickets worth $120 every week. In their lucky draw, each of the co-workers received a prize of $12.7 million.
Playing with your friends, or your colleagues, increases your chances of winning the lottery. And when you win together as a group, you’ll celebrate your good fortune together. Isn’t that what friends are for?
K Elizabeth xoxox
*Collaborative Post