A big prize win is one that the least number of people have to share. Lotteries do not usually provide information on the numbers that people bet on. However, in the past some information has been made available. For instance, no lottery has ever been won by a series of six consecutive numbers, for example 1, 2 ,3, 4, 5, 6. In theory there is no reason this combination cannot appear. It just hasn't.
However, if the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 were drawn then around 10,000 people would have to share the top prize because that's how many people bet on this series of numbers each week. This statistic is a rare instance of Camelot, the organisers of the UK National Lottery, revealing any information about betting patterns. Lottery authorities keep this kind of information secret because of the fear that the knowledge of how people are betting might affect the psychology of play in some unforeseen and disastrous way.
In an attempt to skew fortune many people bet on 'lucky' numbers. Numbers divisible by 7 are popular. So too are birthdays. But while there are 49 numbers on the lottery slip there are only 31 days in a month. If more people bet on numbers between 1 and 31 then more people will have to share any jackpot in which low numbers predominate. On that basis, any choice based dominated by birthdays is one to be avoided.
Never choose your numbers by drawing a pattern on the lottery slip. For example, drawing a cross and betting on the numbers cut through by your lines. On one occasion 133 people had to share the jackpot because they had all drawn the same pattern on their lottery slip.
Lastly, don't buy a so called lottery system. Not only do they have no basis in fact but if, by chance, a system did produce a winner, you would again be sharing the winnings with all the other purchasers of the same bogus system.
