How to Calculate Lotto Odds
Everyone dreams of hitting a Lotto jackpot. However, if you were to calculate your odds of winning Lotto, you might be discouraged enough to stop playing altogether. Surely you've seen the impossible odds of winning Lotto posted somewhere and maybe wondered how that figure was arrived at. So have a dollar, a dream, and a calculator and figure out your odds of winning Lotto.
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Instructions
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Start with determining what your odds are of selecting one correct number. For instance, if there are 50 numbers to choose from, and six numbers will be picked, your odds of choosing one number correctly is 50/6, or 8.33 to 1.
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Continue this pattern until you are down to the final number. For example, after one number is drawn, you now know 49 numbers are left to choose from and five more numbers to be chosen. So your odds become 49/5, or 9.8 to 1.
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Multiply the odds of choosing the correct number after one through six numbers have been chosen. If you have determined the odds for each, you will have six figures to multiply together.
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Write down that figure in a ratio to 1, and that will be your odds of winning Lotto.
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Tips & Warnings
Adding or subtracting from the numbers to choose from will change the odds considerably. For instance, if you can choose numbers between 1 and 60, or 1 and 40, this will have a considerable impact on your odds.
If the Lotto you are playing has an additional number to match from a separate set of numbers, such as Powerball, multiply the final figure you arrive at by the total available numbers of the additional selection to calculate your odds. For example, if there are 30 numbers in the additional selection, multiply your final figure by 30 to calculate your odds.
Do not fool yourself into thinking that if you buy more tickets, you are substantially increasing your odds of winning. The odds are so high that additional tickets will have very little impact on your odds.
Do not get addicted to buying lottery tickets. It's fun to buy a ticket or two on occasion, but spending too much every week on lottery tickets might indicate a gambling addiction.
