Winning the lottery is pretty much everyone’s dream. In Australia, there are loads of lotteries for people to take part in, from national ones available all across the country to smaller ones run by individual states and territories.
They all work in a similar way, though there are many variations, including how many numbers there are and how big the payouts can be. If you want to boost your odds and be more likely to win the lottery, keep reading. We’ll share with you some useful tips to use when playing lotto games in Australia.
The Tips to Boost Your Chances of Winning
Whatever type of Australian lottery you play, there are hints and tips that will show you how to increase your chances of winning the lottery in Australia. Many people play lottery games for the fun of it. They don’t take it too seriously, and though they want to win, they never expect a big win to come around.
When playing the lottery, take a casual approach and hope to win the lottery one day. Or, put some thought into it and hopefully boost your odds. Below are several useful tips to bear in mind if you’re going to play and want to be a winner.
Pick Your Lottery Numbers Carefully
Some people who play lotteries or at the new online casinos Australia pick numbers at random, whereas others stick to set patterns; they might pick a straight line, for example, or focus on a specific number combination. Every time lotto numbers are drawn, the result is completely random and isn’t affected by previous draws in any way. Whenever numbers are revealed, each one has the exact same chance of appearing, no matter how many times each number may have appeared previously.
Since this is the case, there’s no need to stick with specific patterns, combinations, or anything like that. Whether you pick your lottery numbers at random or not, you’ll have the same chance to win. Neither approach increases your chances of winning. Some Australian players are superstitious about certain numbers. When playing lotteries, they’ll keep using the numbers they think are lucky and avoid the ones they think are unlucky. This approach is no more or less likely to work than picking lottery numbers at random.
Buy Lottery Tickets Regularly
You have to be in it to win it, as they say. For a greater chance of winning the lottery, you should play regularly. The more games you play, the more chances of winning you’ll have. However, you should bear in mind that the overall lottery odds are still low. This doesn’t stop lottery players from trying their luck, especially since the cash prizes can be quite large. The more tickets you purchase, the greater the probability that you’ll win. Your chance of winning per ticket will be the same, but with more tickets, you’ll have more rolls of the dice, so to speak.
It’s a good idea to play a weekly lottery, and the Oz Lotto is a good example of this. It has draws every Tuesday night, and there are seven prizes, with the jackpot going to players who match all seven numbers. With a weekly lottery, there’s a small investment – usually just a few dollars. Plus, if no one wins and the jackpot rolls over, you could win a lot more money.
If you go for a weekly lottery, it’s worth playing it every single week. Try your best not to miss any draws because you never know when you might be a winner. This is especially true for those who use the same numbers every week. Imagine if one week you forgot to buy a ticket and all of your lucky numbers were drawn. This would be awful. If you’re determined to be a lottery winner, don’t miss draws because you could end up missing out on big wins.
Be Part of a Lottery Syndicate
A lottery syndicate is where you buy lottery tickets as a group. Each syndicate has an organizer who collects payments from people. They then purchase the lottery tickets; the more money they’ve collected, the more tickets they’ll buy.
If a lotto ticket happens to be a winner, the jackpot prize will be shared amongst everyone who has paid into the pot. If everyone has paid the exact same amount, which is usually the case for real-life syndicates, the prize money will be distributed equally.
Online syndicates, however, allow players to pay for as many tickets as they want. If this is the case, the more tickets you’ve paid for, the greater the share of the prize you’ll receive. To give an example, let’s say an online syndicate has purchased 100 tickets. You’ve paid for 10 of these. There’s a winning ticket, and the jackpot prize is AUD 1,000,000.
Each share of the prize is worth AUD 10,000. Someone who purchased just one ticket would therefore win AUD 10,000. Since you’ve bought 10 tickets, your total share of the jackpot prize would be AUD 100,000, which is 10 times greater.
It’s worth remembering that syndicate prizes are always split among the paying members. Therefore, you shouldn’t expect to be paid the full amount of prize money. There are other people in the syndicate who deserve their shares too. Being part of a syndicate is a great way to improve the likelihood of winning a lottery prize, despite the money being shared amongst multiple people. To receive a greater share of the winnings, you should be part of a syndicate that’s on the smaller side and has fewer members.
Understand Lottery Odds and Payouts
Picking a random lottery, buying tickets for it, and hoping for a win is what some Aussies do. However, this isn’t the best approach to take. Before you buy a lottery ticket, you should know how the lottery works, what the chances of winning are, and how big the payouts can be.
There are several factors that affect a lottery’s payout rates. These include how many numbers there are on the lottery ticket and how many winning numbers there are. Another factor is the minimum number of matching numbers you need on your lottery ticket to win. Below is a brief summary of how to win the jackpot when you play Australia’s biggest lotteries.
- Powerball. Draws every Thursday. Seven numbers from 1-35 are drawn, and a Powerball is drawn from a separate barrel of 20 balls. There are nine prizes you can win. Match all seven numbers and the Powerball to earn the jackpot prize.
- Oz Lotto. Draws every Tuesday. Ten numbers from 1-47 are drawn. The first seven are winning numbers, while the last three are supplementary numbers used to determine certain prizes. There are seven prizes in total, and you have to match the seven winning numbers to win the jackpot.
- Saturday Lotto. Draws every Saturday. Six numbers from 1-45 are drawn, with two supplementary numbers drawn from the remaining 39. This lottery has six prizes altogether, and if you match six winning numbers, you’ll win the top prize.
Always remember that a typical lottery has more than one way of winning. As you can see from above, each of these lotteries has quite a few other prizes available. If your lottery ticket doesn’t win the top prize, don’t throw it away because you could have won one of the smaller prizes. The odds of winning smaller lottery rewards are somewhat lower, so don’t forget about them. They can still be worth thousands of AUD.
Consider Playing Smaller Games
When people win the lottery, their win often makes the news. After all, if you win the lottery, it can be a life-changing event, especially if you win a massive sum of money. When many people play the lottery, they prefer to focus on the big games with multi-million dollar prizes. These games can pay out incredibly large prizes, but the odds of winning them are very, very small indeed.
Many Aussies spend money on the big lotteries only, hoping that one day they’ll match enough numbers on their ticket to win. What some do is focus on smaller lotteries instead, avoiding the well-known games with unrealistic odds. They prefer playing games with lower odds because the probability of winning is slightly higher. There’s a catch, however, and it’s that the smaller lotteries pay less prize money. The lottery has a dark side like everything else, and sometimes it’s better to stay away from Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. Still, winning ten thousand AUD is better than not winning a million AUD.
If you decide to play smaller lotteries, avoid the big national ones like the Powerball, Saturday Lotto, and Oz Lotto. Instead, play games that are available in certain states. Some examples of these are given below.
- Lotto Strike – played in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory
- Cash 3 – played in Western Australia
When you play a smaller lottery, you have to pick fewer numbers than if you were playing a bigger lottery. For example, Lotto Strike has you choose four numbers, and for Cash 3, you have to pick just three. As a general rule of thumb, the fewer numbers you have to pick, the lower the odds and the smaller the prizes.
Don’t Overspend
Having said all that, it’s important not to spend too much money on lottery games. It can be tempting to buy more tickets so that you cover more numbers, but you should have a limit. It’s always best to play the lottery in moderation. Come up with a weekly or monthly budget and try your best to stick to it. Only spend what you can afford to lose, so prioritize bills and other necessary outgoings. If you find that you’re spending too much on lottery tickets, try to cut back or perhaps even stop altogether.
Summary
The probability of winning the lottery isn’t very high. However, winning the lottery in Australia isn’t impossible. If you want to defy the odds and scoop a lottery prize, you’ve got to play. Follow the tips above and improve your strategy. Think carefully about which games you play, how many tickets you purchase, and what numbers you choose. Remember that luck has a huge role to play in this, so even if you play strategically, you’ve got to have some luck on your side to become a winner.