This question is for those who do play numbers-game lotteries. Despite all the idiotic misinformation out there, the odds of winning the MegaMillions or Powerball lotteries are about 175 million to one. It really doesn’t matter whether you buy a “lucky number”, or let the computer pick for you. The odds of winning remain the same. In fact, as counterintuitive as it may seem; the odds of winning with 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 are exactly the same as they are for winning with some random pick the computer spits out; 175 million to one. Maybe the widespread confusion from this stems from the fact that 3 out of every 2 people have a hard time understanding statistics and probability.

But given that the odds are the same (trust me, they are), the deciding factor has to be convenience. It’s easier to buy an easy pick, but it’s easier to recognize a winner if you play a know number each time. If you buy a quick pick and don’t recognize that you have a winning ticket, there’s the possibility you’ll toss it out and never collect. Then again, if you routinely buy a quick pick, and you forget to buy a ticket for a given draw, no harm, no foul. But what if you always play a particular number but forget to buy a ticket for one draw, and then you hear that your number won that draw?

So given all that, if you do play, quick pick or lucky number? If you do play your lucky (or beloved) numbers, do you make sure you’re in the game for every draw so there’s zero chance of that number winning when you aren’t in the hunt?

Topics: easy, games, numbers, lottery, probability, luck, convenience