Lottery Tips – How to Increase Your Chances of Winning the Lottery
Lottery is a game in which numbers are drawn to determine the winner of a prize. The word comes from the Latin word for “to cast lots.” While casting lots to make decisions or to decide fates has a long record in human history (including several instances in the Bible), lotteries offering prizes of money are of more recent origin. The first recorded public lotteries to award prizes of money were held in the Low Countries in the 15th century.
Americans spend over $80 Billion on lotteries every year and the odds are pretty slim that you’ll be one of the lucky ones who wins. But even if you do win, there are huge tax implications that could require you to pay half your winnings. Not to mention the psychological impact of winning big, and all the responsibilities that come with it.
The good news is that there are some things you can do to improve your odds of winning the lottery. Harvard statistics professor Mark Glickman has some tips on how to increase your chances of winning. Basically, it’s personal finance 101: pay off your debts, save for college, diversify your investments and build an emergency fund.
But there’s also a danger in buying into those tips, because they may be technically true but useless or, worse yet, just not true. For example, the tip that picking your children’s birthdays or ages increases your chances of winning is just wrong.