How to Play the Lottery if You Must
Fox 32 Chicago reached out to Northwestern Engineering Professor Barry Nelson for his expertise in statistics With the Mega Millions Lottery jackpot reaching $1.55 Billion, Fox 32 Chicago reached out to Northwestern Engineering Professor Barry Nelson for his expertise in statistics and for some tips to help increase the chances of winning.
Nelson explained that the odds are 1 in 303 million to have the jackpot’s winning ticket. With odds like that it’s hard to fathom winning. Nelson explained that there are two things you can do to increase your chances: 1. Buy more tickets (but you have to buy more than 75 million tickets to have a one-in-four chance of winning the jackpot) and 2. Play numbers that are unpopular to reduce the chance you have to share the jackpot if you win. Nelson went on to explain that the Lottery recently released the numbers least commonly played and he recommends, “certainly play those numbers.”