Illinois Lottery Tips According to Math
Last updated on January 2, 2021 Here is a guide for learning how to play the Illinois Lottery better. You will understand applied probability and combinatorial methods governing a truly random game. And you don’t need a math degree to understand the method. A good thing to know, there’s a calculator that you can use … Continue reading "Illinois Lottery Tips According to Math"

Last updated on January 2, 2021 Here is a guide for learning how to play the Illinois Lottery better. You will understand applied probability and combinatorial methods governing a truly random game. And you don’t need a math degree to understand the method. A good thing to know, there’s a calculator that you can use to help understand your game better and be a smart lotto player. Let’s begin, shall we? Don’t use a statistical method Statistics have for years been the way for many lotto players to understand the game of lottery. People look at the past results to determine hot numbers (frequently drawn) and cold numbers (seldom drawn). While there is truth in this observation from a small number of draws, you could see that all the numbers in the field will converge in the same expected frequency as the number of draws gets larger and larger. Most times, people alternatively use statistics and probability with the notion they are the same. Yet, statistics and probability are two different mathematical concepts we can use for dealing with problems. A question could be either a statistical problem or a probability problem. To know what kind of problem it is and see how to solve it, we must assess our knowledge of the given facts. If the available data is inadequate to solve the problem, we resort to the statistical sampling method. For example, if there are 100 socks in a drawer and we don’t know how many are black and how many white socks are there, we ask a statistical question: What is the proportion of black and white socks in the drawer? This type of question is not the case in the Illinois lottery. Since the lottery has a finite structure, our knowledge of its composition is adequate. We know exactly that the Illinois Lotto 6/52 game comprises 26 low numbers (1 to 26) and 26 high numbers (27 to 52). And we know that there are 23 odd numbers and 22 even numbers in the Lucky Day Lotto 5/45 game. Remember, statistical analysis is not necessary when a finite game is involved. Now, if a statistical analysis doesn’t help, what does? Be ready to know in the next section. How to play the Illinois lottery using combinatorics and probability Many people believe that since the lottery is random, no strategy could help any player win. The truth, the very random nature of the lottery can help you play better through the use of probability and combinatorial analysis. See my post The Winning Lottery Formula Based on Combinatorics and Probability Theory. The image above appears pixelated because of the streaks and clusters as depicted by gray and white spaces. It shows the lottery’s behavior in a truly random draw, suggesting ways not to be mathematically wrong when you play the Illinois lottery. See The Visual Analysis of a True Random Lottery with Deterministic Outcome. Using mathematics, we can compute the combinatorial patterns according to the finite structure of the game. And we can use a probability formula for separating the good from the bad and the best from the worst combinations. For example, we can ask a probability question such as: What is the probability that the next winning combination will be composed of 3-low-odd-numbers and 3-low-even numbers? And the answer will make you realize that a 1-2-3-4-5-6 combination must be avoided when playing a lottery game. This method cannot be done accurately and precisely through statistical analysis. Of course, it is impossible to predict the next winning combinations. Still, we can foretell the lottery’s overall outcome because a truly random game must follow the law of large numbers or LLN. See my post on how to win the Lottery. What Is The Law Of Large Numbers Or LLN? This probability theorem states that the average results from many trials should be close to the expected value. There are combinatorial groups in the lottery that follows the frequency dictated by its probability with the increasing number of draws. I will give you lots of examples below. But before we go to the details, we must define some words to prevent some confusion along the way as we delve into the mathematical method of winning in the Illinois lottery. Numbers and combinations are not the same Keep in mind that numbers and combinations are two different terms. While you need to pick numbers to play the lotto, you have to complete the six numbers to win the Illinois lotto 6/52 game’s jackpot. And you need to pick five numbers to win the Lucky Day Lotto 5/45 game. In other words, you need a combination to win. So, 3,15,27,39,49, and 51 are all different numbers. But when they are put together, they form the combination 3-15-27-39-49-51, which perfectly describes a 6-odd composition. While each number may have the same attribute (for example, all balls from the urn have the same weight, the same size, and the same texture), combinations cannot be the same in characteristics. For example, some combinations may have consecutive numbers, and some don’t have. Combinations can be grouped according to their composition. For example, we can separate those combinations with no even numbers (all numbers are odd numbers). We can separate those combinations with high numbers from those that are composed of all low numbers. In short, combinations are not created equally. The difference indicates that a lotto strategy exists. We will focus on this mathematical strategy by establishing the existence of inequality among combinations. So as an Illinois lottery player, you are lucky because things are looking up. All numbers and combinations have the same probability As I have mentioned earlier, hot and cold numbers don’t exist in a random lotto game. According to the law of large numbers, those less frequently occurring numbers will catch up soon. In short, each number will give you the same chance of winning. All numbers will converge in the same expected frequency given a large number of draws. That’s why statistical analysis of the previous results of the lottery is such a futile exercise. And this means that we have no power to know what numbers will occur in the coming draw. Now, like numbers, all combinations have the same probability. Even the notorious 1-2-3-4-5-6 combination has an equal chance as any other combination. The reason is that there’s only one way to win the jackpot. So mathematically speaking, a probability value of 1/ 13,983,816 would make the chance of (1-2-3-4-5-6) occurring “almost impossible.” But the same probability value stands for all other playable combinations in Illinois lotto 6/52. The same holds for all combinations in the Lucky Day Lotto 5/45 game. All combinations are subordinate to the same probability formula. The most important thing to remember is that we have no power to manipulate probability calculation results. But that doesn’t mean we’re hopeless. If numbers and combinations are equally likely, what kind of strategy is available for Illinois lotto players? The key is in your choice. Surely as a lotto player, you have the power to make the right choice and be “wrong less” for the majority of the time. You have to learn how not to be mathematically wrong. Even though you can’t change the underlying probability and cannot beat the lottery’s odds, you can calculate all the possible scenarios and make the right decision based on the calculation. How can we calculate and make the right decision? That’s the topic we will be discussing next. Focus on the ratio and be wrong less Many players are familiar with the concept of “equally possible” idealization that applies to all combinations. That’s true because, from a mathematical point of view, the probability 1/13,983,816 stands for all the playable combinations. But this “equally possible” idealization leads lotto players to believe that a strategy doesn’t exist. Most lotto players think that there’s no right or wrong way to play the lottery because the probability is the same across the number field. That’s not true. It seems to me that people forget the concept of odds. Probability and odds are two different mathematical concepts. See my post Odds, Probability, and the Lottery. Probability refers to the likelihood that the combination you chose will match all the winning numbers of a lottery game. Here’s how we express probability: On the other hand, odds refer to the ratio of you winning the game over losing in the game. And here’s how we express odds: It is heartening to know that the entire lottery game consists of combinatorial groups. And each group has a different ratio of success to failure. Thus, your chosen odds will make a difference in your game strategy. So being able to pick the best odds must be your goal if you want to get the best shot possible. And by saying the best shot possible, that means choosing the best ratio of success to failure. The calculation of odds is crucial for decision making. You can see exactly the many ways you will win and the many ways you will lose. You can calculate all the possible odds and choose the most favorable one. While you cannot manipulate probability and cannot beat the odds, you have the power to choose better odds. Do not waste effort on things you cannot control. Math will help you focus on things you have control over. Remember, your goal is to win the Illinois lottery, and the right thing to do is to get the best ratio of success to failure. Now don’t forget that the only way to increase your chance of winning is to buy more tickets. But buying hundreds of tickets is useless if you’re making the wrong choices. Therefore, when you buy more tickets, make sure that you also get the best ratio of success to failure. How do we know the best ratio? We start with knowing the composition of the combination. Composition matters. And composition is best explained using combinatorial patterns. The importance of composition and combinatorial patterns To win in a lottery game, the combination you have chosen must match some or all of the numbers drawn for that lottery game. You win the jackpot prize if all the numbers in your combination match the drawn winning combination. The combination is very important, and to have an effective combinatorial design, you must understand the lottery’s finite structure. Realize the relationship among these numbers when you put them together in a combination. Let’s use the combination 2-4-6-8-10-12 as an example. Notice that the combination consists of all even numbers and all the numbers are all low numbers. This combination has a non-random characteristic. You see, combinations can have different characteristics depending on the composition. See the table below for other examples of characteristics for different combinations. CombinationComposition1-2-25-26-37-38contains three sets of consecutive numbers1-2-3-41-42-43contains two sets of consecutive numbers20-23-25-26-27-29numbers are the 20s17-18-19-20-21-22contains straight consecutive numbers These variations in the compositions divide an entire lottery game into combinatorial groups. And this composition study is best to describe combinatorial patterns. Let me give you examples of how to apply the ratio of success to failure in the Illinois lottery concerning combinatorial patterns. Applying the ratio of success to the Lotto 6/52 game There are 230,230 ways to combine 6-low-0-high. And there are 20,128,290 ways to combine numbers using other combinatorial patterns. Therefore, a combination of this type is expected to occur approximately once out of 88 attempts you play the game. On the other hand, there are 6,760,000 ways to combine 3-low-3-high, and there are 13,598,520 ways to combine numbers the other way. Therefore, that gives you approximately 33 opportunities to match the winning combination out of 100 attempts that you play the lotto 6/52. Notice the number of ways you will fail if you choose the 6-low patterns and compare it with the 3-low-3-high pattern. Obviously, the 3-low-3-high pattern gives you more ways to win and fewer ways to fail. You see that the best choice of group is 3-high-3-low while the worst is 6-high-0-low. Knowing which is best and worst makes the most out of your time and resources spent on playing Illinois lotto games. Precise calculation is always better than mere “gut feeling.” We can compute the possibilities and then analyze the various choices that can affect your success. As shown in the above comparison of the ratio between two choices, it will not be ideal to play 6-low-0-high combinations like (1-2-3-4-5-6) or (2-4-6-8-10-12). Applying the ratio of success to the Lucky Day Lotto 5/45 game This time, let’s base our analysis using odd and even numbers. There are 26,334 ways to combine 0-odd-5-even. And there are 1,195,425 ways to combine numbers using other combinatorial patterns. So, a combination from this group is expected to occur approximately once out of 46 attempts. On the other hand, there are 409,101 ways to combine 3-odd-2-even, and there are 812,658 ways to combine numbers that are not 3-odd-2-even. Therefore, that provides you with approximately 33 opportunities to match the winning combination out of 100 attempts that you play Lucky Day Lotto 5/45. The table above shows that when the number of ways to win increases, the number of ways to fail decreases. It means that when inequalities are involved, you will choose a more balanced combination because it offers more ways to win and less chance to fail. Right? And that’s the power of using mathematics to know all the possibilities and thus make the right choice to lose less. The strategy here is in the act of choice. RememberYou cannot change the underlying probability and you cannot beat the lottery’s odds, but as a lotto player, you have the power to make the right choice. Even choosing not to play is a strategy by itself. To win in the Illinois Lottery, you need to compute all the possible odds and pick the one that will give you the best winning ratio. To further understand how composition matters and why it is so important for decision-making, let me discuss what you can do to improve your combination’s composition. Choose a balanced odd and even numbers Let’s group all numbers into odd and even groups for Lotto 6/52 game. Odd = 1,3,5,7,9,11,13,15,17,19,21,23,25,27,29,31,33,35,37,39,41,43,45,47,49,51 Even = 2,4,6,8,10,12,14,16,18,20,22,24,26,28,30,32,34,36,38,40,42,44,46,48,50,52 The table above shows that an all-even and all-odd composition are the worst type of combinations to play in a lottery game. As you see, there are more ways to combine 3-odd-3-even combinations. And therefore, you can make a reasonable expectation that the lottery draws will be dominated by 3-odd-3-even combinations. Because there are more ways to win, the number of ways you fail decreases. Therefore, a 3-odd-3-even combination gives you the best ratio of success to failure. Next, let’s group the Lucky Day Lotto 5/45 game’s odd and even numbers: Odd = 1,3,5,7,9,11,13,15,17,19,21,23,25,27,29,31,33,35,37,39,41,43,45 Even = 2,4,6,8,10,12,14,16,18,20,22,24,26,28,30,32,34,36,38,40,42,44 If you want to make the most out of your time and money spent playing the Lucky Day Lotto 5/45 game, you will most definitely want to play for the odds that will give the best outcome. Meaning, instead of picking a combination that will occur just once in 100 draws, you might as well play for a combination that has the highest number of occurrences in 100 draws. In the Lucky Day Lotto 5/45, the (3-odd-2-even) and (2-odd-3-even) groups will always dominate the game as the number of draws gets larger and larger. And following the law of large numbers, this behavior is bound to continue at infinity. RememberChoosing a 3-odd-2-even combination instead of 5-even (e.g., 2-4-6-8-10) WILL NOT increase your chances of winning because all combinations have the same probability. The reason you shouldn’t choose 2-4-6-8-10 is that the 0-odd-5-even pattern has fewer ways to win and have more ways to fail. You should choose 3-odd-2-even because it offers you the best ratio of success to failure. This probability analysis reinforces the method of choosing the best groups that will give you more opportunities to win and less chance to fail. That’s how important the ratio of success to failure to players of the Illinois lottery. Have a balanced low and high numbers To understand what high and low numbers are, let us group 52 numbers into two sets. The numbers in the first half are low, while the second-half numbers are the high numbers. Low = 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26 High = 27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52 A 6-low-0-high number combination contains all numbers picked from the first set. And a 3-low-3-high combination contains three numbers from the first set and three numbers from the second set. The 6-low-and-0-high patterns are examples of 1-2-3-4-5-6 combinations. And this is why straight combinations are such a worthless combination that every player of the Illinois lottery must avoid at all costs. Since there are more 3-low-3-high numbers from the universe of 13 million combinations, it shows that the lotto 6/52 game tends to distribute the drawing of winning numbers across the entire number field. Again, this inequality among combinatorial groups helps lotto players make the right choice most of the time. The same inequality answers why it’s possible to predict the Lotto game’s general outcome (to an extent). Of course, the same explanation stands for the Lucky Day Lotto 5/45 game. The 1-2-3-4-5 combination may be notorious and popular but based on the table above; it’s not the worst one. The table shows that line 41-42-43-44-45 is the worst type of combination you can play in the Lucky Day Lotto 5/45 game since it follows the format of the 0-low-5-high group. RememberChoosing a 3-low-2-high combination instead of a 5-low combination (e.g., 1-2-3-4-5) WILL NOT increase your chances of winning because all combinations are equally likely. You should avoid 1-2-3-4-5 because a 5-low-0-high pattern has fewer ways to win and more ways to fail. I recommend choosing 3-odd-2-even because it offers the best ratio of success to failure. The table above reinforces the benefits of calculating possibilities because you can see exactly how the whole lottery game performs as the draws continue to take place. And when you know how the lottery behaves, you can plan your game ahead of time. Now that you understand how odd-even and low-high patterns affect your decision, it’s time to delve into a more advanced strategy to apply to the Illinois lottery. Enter Lotterycodex. Use Lotterycodex to improve your game Sometimes, two separate analyses contradict each other. And it is the case between low-high and odd-even probability analysis. For example, under the odd-even analysis, the 1-2-3-4-5-6 combination is considered one of the best since it has a balanced mixture of odd/even numbers (3-even-3-odd mixture). But then we know that 1-2-3-4-5-6 is one of the worst according to low-high analysis. We have to find a solution to this contradiction. The solution is Lotterycodex patterns. Lotterycodex can make an exact probability measurement and then tell you which choices are ideal and problematic. Lotterycodex is all about accuracy and precision. It simplifies picking combinations incorporating both low-high and odd-even analysis in one combinatorial and probability analysis. The combinatorial design applied to Illinois Lotto is composed of 4 sets from the 52 numbers. By dividing them into 4, we get: Low-Odd = 1,3,5,7,9,11,13,15,17,19,21,23,25 Low-Even = 2,4,6,8,10,12,14,16,18,20,22,24,26 High-Odd = 27,29,31,33,35,37,39,41,43,45,47,49,51 High-Even = 28,30,32,34,36,38,40,42,44,46,48,50,52 Based on these sets, we can measure why 1-2-3-4-5-6 is such a bad combination with no contradiction at all. For the Lotto 6/52 game, there are 84 patterns in all. Again, not all patterns share the same odds, so you must choose the one that will yield the best success-to-failure ratio. Check out the image below. For the Lucky Day Lotto 5/45 players, we will discuss Lotterycodex patterns later below in a separate section. For now, let me show the corresponding patterns for the Illinois Lotto 6/52 game: Out of the 84 patterns, you will want to spend money only on the six best patterns and avoid the middle and the worst patterns. Otherwise, you will only waste your money away. If you have been an Illinois Lottery player for some time now, you probably have played for the worst or middle patterns without being aware of it. With Lotterycodex, you are fully aware of what combinatorial patterns will work best in your game. Lotterycodex can separate the good, the bad, the worst, and the best combinations in any lottery game. There is no room for assumptions. There is only a precise probability calculation for your guide in taking the best course of action when playing lottery games. Forget the old lottery wheel systems There are many kinds of lottery wheeling systems, such as: The Full-wheeling system allows you to select more numbers. However, this is an expensive strategy because the more you choose, the more combinations you must purchase to maximize your win coverage. The abbreviated and the filtered wheeling system still offers you a winning shot (despite the small prizes you could win) and are not as expensive to play as the full wheel system. All the above lottery wheels work according to the traditional concepts of covering. These lottery wheeling systems could either make you spend more or win less. Lotterycodex is here to solve that old system. It works according to the principle of covering with probability theory to separate the good, bad, best, and worst combinations. At the time of writing, the Lotterycodex calculator is the only lottery wheel that performs combinatorial and probability analysis in one system. It will give you the ability to spend money wisely, as you will buy lotto tickets with a high ratio of success of winning the jackpot prize (not just small consolation prizes). Lucky Day Lotto has the best odds Considering all factors, it is the Lucky Day Lotto 5/45 that I recommend the most among the Illinois lottery games. It has the least odds. And it doesn’t require an extra ball to win the top prize, which makes it even more attractive. Its prize payout is not as high as those from Powerball, Lotto 6/52, and Mega Millions. However, it is an attractive game to play, especially when lady luck blesses you to have a life-changing experience. Now, if you play the Lucky Day Lotto 5/45 as a syndicate, winning is much easier. It will be too difficult to predict which single pattern will make you win. Through the table above, you could be closer to finding the solution to the puzzle. With one best pattern out of 56 patterns, it yields the ideal success-to-failure ratio. The odds in a 6/52 lotto game are 1:20 million. The odds in the Lucky Day 5/45 lotto is 1:1.2 million. Therefore, the Lucky Day Lotto is about 17 times easier than Lotto 6/52 game. But choosing the best game in Illinois is always a subjective matter. We mention the power of knowing and making the right choice; here is where you exercise that power. You should weigh in all criteria. Consider the prize payout, the extra ball (if any), and your budget for entertainment. After considering all the criteria, decide the optimal trade-off that you are willing to take. Know the parameters of the game and decide based on those parameters. Know the pieces of mathematical information about each Illinois lottery game and make up your mind. Predicting the results of the Illinois Lottery The underlying probability is unchangeable. There is no way to beat the lottery odds. Yet, you can choose how to play to make the game worthwhile. Matching a pattern will not make you win any prize. You need to understand and accept this. But if you could visualize a lottery game much better, you will discern its future behavior, as dictated by the Law of Large Numbers. This probability method is far better than gathering the past drawn numbers and assuming which numbers are hot and cold. Take, for example, patterns #1 and #84 in the 6/52 lotto game. Pattern # 84 has a 0.0000842890 probability value. From this probability value, we can predict the results of the Lotto 6/52 game ahead of time. Plus, you can also see how your choice will perform after some time. When you play for pattern #84, you could expect this pattern to occur 8 times in 100,000 draws. It translates that there are 8 opportunities that you will match the winning numbers after you have spent money on 100,000 games. Pattern # 1 has a 0.0505044571 probability value. This pattern #1 gives you 253 opportunities to match the winning numbers in 5000 draws. This pattern is better than playing for pattern #84. Now, Lotterycodex will not give you a pattern that will win instantly in the Illinois lottery. Through the patterns it can generate, you will better understand the game you are playing. It gives you a better strategy for well-played games instead of just crossing your fingers while hoping for the best. See below for the partial list of patterns and their corresponding estimation. The table above lets you see the possibilities early on. You have a better edge of playing. You know that pattern # 1 has the highest expected frequency of winning the game. Therefore, this is the pattern you will want to spend your money on rather than waste your resources on other patterns with a low ratio of success. As a lotto player, you would want to win something for the money you have spent on Illinois lotto tickets. Therefore, you will not unnecessarily spend money on patterns next to impossible to occur. Predicting the trend of the Lucky Day Lotto If Lotterycodex patterns can help you see and use better opportunities for playing the 6/52 lotto game, expect that you can do better with the Illinois Lucky Day Lotto. Let us use the figures from the table above. Out of the 56 patterns for the 5/45 lotto, we look at patterns #1 and #53. Pattern # 53 has a 0.0006 probability value. In 2000 draws, pattern #53 has an expected occurrence of just once. For 5000 draws, you can expect this same pattern to occur only three times. In playing the lottery, you could buy tickets with pattern #53, but realize you will have to spend money on 2000 games first before you can match the winning numbers. Pattern #1 has a 0.072 probability value. In 2000 draws, pattern #1 could occur 144 times. In 5000 draws, this pattern could occur 360 times. You could play for pattern #1 over and over and expect it to be closer to matching the winning numbers 144 times in 2000 draws. With these patterns in mind, along with their estimated frequency in several draws, you have the best ratio of success to failure. This is better than buying lotto tickets by picking numbers you could first think of or picking assumed hot/cold numbers. Don’t predict the winning numbers Predicting the next winning numbers in the Illinois lottery is not possible. The only best way to handle this randomness is being objective when making your choices. Don’t focus on the numbers. Hot and cold numbers don’t exist. Please read my post: Most Common Winning Lottery Numbers Are Not the Best Numbers to Play Considering lucky and unlucky numbers as a criterion is subjective because your choice can be related to personal circumstantial experiences. Don’t expect that the lottery will go favoring your personal stories and your birthday and the birthdays of your sons and daughters to the detriment of other players. The lottery is a completely random, fair, and unbiased game. Choosing numbers is the most important stage of the game because that is when you engage directly in the game. So be objective and make the right choice. So how to make an objective strategy? You focus on the combinations. There are three factors to consider when choosing your combinations: Covering principleBalance selectionProbability analysis The Lotterycodex calculator is the only calculator online that puts these three factors together in one conclusive analysis. And you don’t need to have a math degree to do any of these kinds of stuff. Simply enter your number, and the calculator will do the heavy lifting for you. Timing can be hard but it can be an opportunity The law of large numbers does not guarantee a 100% win in the lottery. How you understand this law will enlighten you about probability theory as a critical factor in your game strategy. Remember that in a lottery game, there could be millions of combinations you can create. Through your understanding of LLN, you could distinguish good from poor combinations. You would also know when the time is right not to play. For example, using the last night’s draw pattern, you must not use the same pattern for a while. While the same pattern can occur 3-4 times in a row, this event is still highly unlikely in the Illinois lottery. So how can I implement this timing strategy? Let’s say you’re playing pattern #1 for Lotto 6/52 game. Pattern #1 has a probability value of 0.0505044571, which means that this combinatorial pattern is expected to occur approximately five times in 100 draws. It means then that you don’t need to play 100 times to play the pattern. It shows that there is approximately an interval of 20 draws. If the pattern occurred yesterday, you might probably want to wait for around 15 to 25 draws before you start playing again. What you can do in between is use that opportunity to save money for entertainment so that you can implement a better covering when you are ready. Now, keep in mind that in a truly random lottery, the measurement of an interval will not give you a precise and accurate strategy. But you can use this interval measurement to have a close idea of how to time your play because when a pattern is bound to occur five times in 100 draws, you don’t want to play every draw using the same pattern even if it’s the best pattern in your game. Below are examples of probability calculation for each pattern in the Lotto 6/52 game with the corresponding interval. Now, let’s go to the Lucky Day Lotto game. In the Lucky Day Lotto 5/45, pattern #1 has a probability value of 0.0719012506. So the reasonable expectation is that this pattern will occur approximately seven times in 100 draws. Therefore, you have an idea of playing every ten days and save money in between. Here are examples of patterns for Lucky Day Lotto with corresponding probability value and approximate interval. Many people know traditional methods like hot and cold numbers, but they still stick to their method because they find probability analysis overwhelming. To most people, math is an alien language they would rather not delve into. Available lotto games in the Illinois Lottery There are four available lottery games one can play in Illinois Lottery: The Powerball, The Mega Millions, The 6/52 Lotto, and The Lucky Day Lotto 5/45. The Lotto 6/52 – This game began in 1998, and its play method remains since then. The cost per game, however, has increased. Before, $1 is good for two plays. Now, $1 is just for one game. To play, pick six numbers between 1 and 52. They hold three weekly draws for Lotto 6/52 (Monday, Thursday, Saturday). The jackpot prize is at least $2 million. You can buy tickets online on the official website. Click here to see the recent results. One can win in 11 different ways, but the odds for winning the pot money is 1/20,358,530. This makes it seem impossible to win, but this is better than your odds for winning the Powerball Lottery (1/292 million) or the Mega Millions (1/302.5 million).The Lucky Day Lotto 5/45 – This is an Illinois-only game with two draws (midday and evening) for each day of the week. Therefore, your winning streak could strike on any day of the week. Choose five numbers from 1 to 45. The jackpot prize is at least $100,000 (it increases until somebody wins). You win if at least 2 of your selected numbers match the winning number combination. The odds for winning are 1/1,221,758, which makes it the easiest game one can win among all Illinois Lottery games. One game costs $1. Spend another $1 to play EZmatch for an instant winning prize of up to $5,000.The Powerball – The Powerball is a large national jackpot game. There are nine ways to win in the Powerball. Pay $2 to play. You must select five numbers from 1 to 69. Then choose your 6th number as your Powerball from 1 to 26. You could choose Power Play for an additional $1 per game. Power Play is a feature allowing players to multiply up to 10 times the non-jackpot winning prizes. This 10x multiplier is only for jackpots that are less than $150 million. Choose Power Play with the Match 5 prize option, which is always worth $2 million. Click here to see the recent results. Read more about the Powerball game and understand its probability and combinatorial study in another article, How to Win the Powerball.The Mega Millions – Illinois is among the original nine states selling Mega Millions tickets. The popularity of this game started in 2002. Players try their luck on winning massive jackpots and Megaplier prizes that are up to $5 million. You need to pay $2 to play. You must choose five numbers from 1 to 70. Then choose your sixth number as your Mega Ball from 1 to 25. You can play with a Megaplier for an additional $1 per game. With a Megaplier, you can multiply the non-jackpot prizes up to 5 times. Click here to see the recent results. For more in-depth analysis of the game, you may read How to Win the Mega Millions. Extra balls in the Powerball and the Mega Millions Now, you probably wonder about the extra ball in the two games mentioned above. The extra ball in the Powerball and the Mega Millions provides a bigger advantage to lottery operators. The extra balls create a new set of combinations, which makes winning even harder. Your chances of winning are inversely proportional to the number of combinations. This means that more combinations mean lesser chances of winning. Please read my post How to Handle the Tricky Extra Ball. With the greater challenge for winning in the Powerball and Mega Millions, you have another reason to believe that the Lucky Day Lotto 5/45 and Lotto 6/52 are the ideal games to play in the Illinois Lottery. The power of a lotto syndicate There were many instances when the jackpot was won not by individual players but by a group of people who shared their money to buy lotto tickets. The syndicate uses the pooled money to buy tickets and get more coverage that would otherwise be too expensive for an individual player to afford. If any of the tickets bought by the syndicate wins, members share the jackpot prize equally. The advantage of playing as a syndicate is buying more tickets and increasing your chances of winning a game in the Illinois lottery. There is not much to gain even if you buy hundreds of lottery tickets if you’re making the wrong choices. In any lotto game, the mathematical strategy is not to focus on probability. Instead, it is to know every possibility and to decide correctly for improving your success-to-failure ratio. There is no way to control probability. Still, as a lotto player, you can make the correct choices. Making the right choices is not through general observations, such as looking at hot and cold numbers from past draw results. Rather than looking at statistics, use precise calculations to understand the lottery’s determinate behavior over many games. A math strategy can help a lotto syndicate optimize the power of their pooled resources by allowing them to buy tickets with the best ratio of success to failure. If you create or join a lotto syndicate, every member needs to sign an agreement about the terms of participation. Discuss with all members the importance of spending the syndicate’s money wisely. It is a must for any individual player or a syndicate to avoid making the wrong choices as much as possible. Read my post An Introduction to Lottery Syndicate. Lotterycodex can help a lotto syndicate make the most out of their pooled resources by buying more tickets with the best shot possible in the Illinois lottery. Apply the inverse strategy To win the lottery means seriously dealing with an enormous challenge, so you have to think of the best strategy to bring home the jackpot one day. You could play the lottery for a long time, and you probably have reached a point where you thought you need to stop because your efforts are futile. However, do not feel disheartened just yet. If you see no positive results from your games, there is something wrong with how you are playing. It is probably best to come up with an inverse strategy. But let me give you a hint: winning the lottery is not always about aiming for huge prizes. You may have an idea by now, but most probably it’s not what you think because winning small prizes frequently is not possible. Don’t believe when some lotto gurus say you can win small prizes frequently. Mathematically speaking, it’s not true. So, you may ask, if I don’t aim for the prizes, how else can I win the game? You’ve got to look at the lottery from an inverse perspective to win. You may never experience winning the jackpot, but surely you don’t lose either. Think about playing the lottery with a safety net. Avoid quick-pick and other superstitions While it is tempting to play using quick picks, especially after hearing success stories of jackpot winners who only played via Quick Picks, carefully consider if you want to play using a strategy instead of pure luck. “Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.”, says Alexander Graham Bell. Thus, succeeding in lotto games is preparation. Probability is the best preparation tool you can use for your lotto pursuits. It lets you plan your moves so your efforts will not go to waste. Read Top 10 Lottery Strategy Myths Debunked (Perhaps You’re Doing #4 or #10) to understand more about why you must avoid Quick Picks. Also, don’t play the game with superstitious beliefs. Even if you have access to a paranormal power (if that exists), no one has the power to control, manipulate, and even predict the next winning numbers. Some news articles feature how lucky some people are for winning the lottery by applying the Law of Attraction (LOA). One of these people is Cynthia Stafford, who claimed that her visualization exercises made her win the jackpot prize in the Mega Millions lotto. Good for her, she won, but do not quickly assume that if LOA worked for her, it would also work for you. The lottery has a quite random behavior, and its odds are hard to beat even by the law of attraction. Only a mathematical strategy can improve your success-to-failure ratio when playing the lottery. LOA is essentially a superstition that you must avoid if you want to have the best possible time playing the lottery. While LOA works for other facets of life, it is not an excellent strategy to apply in the lottery. It is truly amazing to discover the success stories of people who have “successfully attracted positive energies in their lives.” Visualization may contribute something, such as keeping your faith alive, but math has a more reasonable solution for succeeding as a lottery player. Yet, it is more compelling to feel awe-inspired and learn from the stories of people who succeeded through hard work, perseverance, planning, and precise strategies. You may practice visualization by playing the lottery, but it is better to follow a calculated strategy. Mathematics remains the only tool that provides practical information as to how a truly random game behaves. And as a lotto player, you should play your game based on information that only mathematics can provide. And there’s a tool that exists to help you in that aspect. Lotterycodex separates the good, the bad, the worst, and the best combinations so that your decisions have a logical basis. There is a mathematical reason that contributed to the success of Ms. Stafford and others like her. According to the Imperial College London emeritus professor and senior research investigator, David Hand, rare occurrences like coincidences happen because of the improbability principle and the law of truly large numbers. We have learned about LTLN earlier in the section for strange number combinations. The story of Ms. Stafford is like the stories of other lottery winners who won with their strange number combinations. The many previous draws worldwide gave way to the happening of a very rare and highly unlikely opportunity. The number of opportunities required to make a highly unlikely event also came from the many LOA supporters who bought lottery tickets, hoping to win the jackpot through visualization. Beware of confirmation bias and availability bias You have learned about the success stories of few LOA supporters who won the lottery, but have you known about the stories of even more LOA supporters who failed to win with just the LOA strategy for playing the lottery? The answer is a resounding “no.” You see, that’s the effect of some biases in the information called availability bias and confirmation bias. You hear the popular story of a LOA supporter winning the lottery from recent news, which instantly made you confirm your belief that LOA works and ignores the vast stories of people who didn’t make it. Truth be told, using mathematical concepts and analysis is the more plausible strategy for playing the lottery. There are numbers and figures to back it. A system that works within mathematical principles is still the best way to deal with lottery randomness. Use a lottery number generator to save yourself from all these complexities. If you read other articles on this website, you understand that patterns will always closely match its expected frequency over time and given a certain number of draws. Strange combinations in some Illinois Lottery draw Sometimes strange combinations occur in Illinois lottery draws. Lottery odds are hard to beat, and its underlying probability is always at play. Mathematically speaking, these strange combinations in lottery draws must occur whether we like it or not. But that doesn’t mean it’s OK to play strange combinations. Let me explain. Your goal is to get the best ratio of success to failure. And you don’t get the kind of best shot with improbable combinations. Usually, these strange combinations come in the form of non-random combinations and out of balance selection. Let me give you some examples of strange combinations you can find in a truly random lottery. Consecutive numbers Take, for instance, 1-2-3-4-5-6. A report from The Guardian stated that there are about 10,000 people who play this combination each day. According to this report, there are many such players that if this combo ever wins, each of them will take home £400. Consecutive numbers in a strange combination do not have to be in succession from the first to last. They come in different variations (such as 3-4 consecutive numbers in a combo), but strange as they are, these combos with consecutive numbers have come out in occasional real-life draws.Regular Intervals In math classes, we have learned about skip-counting, wherein the numbers in a series have certain equal intervals, like 5-10-15-20-25-30. While this knowledge applies well to other areas of life, such as buying and selling goods, the lottery is not an ideal circumstance where you must apply skip-counting.Out of balance combos are those that over-represent one number group and misrepresent the other groups. For example, 7-23-24-26-29-29 does not contain numbers from 10-19, 30-39, and 40-49. Another example is 10-12-15-16-18-19. All these numbers belong only to one group (10 to 19). These are only a few improbable combinations in a lottery that some players still use despite the very low success ratio. The possibility of this strange combination occurring in the lottery is under the law of truly large numbers or LTLN. According to this law, abundant opportunities may give way to unusual things, coincidences, and outrageous events. This LTLN differs from the Law of Large Numbers or LLN. LTLN explains the occurrence of unusual events in all random events. LLN, on the other hand, provides a conclusion on the general outcome of a lottery game according to a large number of draws. LLN’s conclusion is what you must focus on. We mentioned LTLN only to understand why improbable combinations occasionally win in lotteries. However, do not feel comfortable playing the lottery with unusual combinations that you picked unless you are OK with uselessly spending your money. Less thought of combinations like 35-36-37-38-39-40 or 5-10-15-20-25-30 is hit-or-miss. These combinations are far-fetched numbers to spend money on. While it is your money and your decision that will prevail, it is not a good idea to spend money on 12,000 draws just to hope your weird combination wins. It is not worth proving the point that the lucky stars are on your side. It is also important to learn that these odd-looking combos do not appear evident instantly. Some weird combinations do not even show noticeable patterns, like 2-9-16-23-30-37 and 2-13-17-23-37-47. To know more about this law of truly large numbers, please read: How Does Math Explain Unusual Events, Strange Combinations, and Coincidences in the Lottery In a 6/52 game, there are 20 million combinations one can play. With so many combinations to pick, which ones should you use? You could use a combination of numbers that first come to mind. There are also use hot and cold numbers that some people observe from past draws. Yet, all these options could have a low success-to-failure ratio or could only lead to a waste of money you could otherwise avoid. You can calculate the odds yourself. Better yet, use Lotterycodex calculators to do the precise computations. Play the Illinois Lottery for fun Lottery games always have a negative expected value. This means that you can not expect positive returns each time you buy a lottery ticket. Therefore, it is a smart decision to treat playing the lottery as entertainment. Rather than hope to win some amount of money to live by, it is better to work hard on your actual job. Do not spend more than what you have allotted for your lottery entertainment. Stay away from people who say they can win small prizes more frequently. I have debunked that statement in the blog. If you want to make the most out of your time and money you spent on lottery tickets, consider using a lottery calculator that can provide you with the best patterns to use when playing Illinois Lottery and any other lottery games. People play the lottery with the assumption they can hit two birds with one stone. There are two scenarios most lotto players probably have in mind. The best scenario is that they win the grand prize. The worst scenario is they do not even get a single number right. Despite the loss, they will only just think they gave money away to charity. This will make them feel better instead of crying over the money they have spent, getting nothing in return. You could just give alms to the homeless and the needy if a charity is your plan of consoling yourself when you lose in a lotto game. This is a better way to avoid heartache after losing in several games. Remember that your participation in the lottery goes a long-long way. The lottery proceeds help improve the community in financing education for the poor, funding public roads, public health, charity works, and nation-building in general. It’s all to have fun while helping the government provide support for your fellow citizens. Make a precise and accurate calculation when you play You can play better in Lucky Day Lotto and any other lotto games. And that makes your game more fun. There are no lottery tricks, just fun. Lotterycodex gives you a better picture of the lotto game. Understand that this is not just a short-term visualization but a long-term depiction of a lotto game and its future behavior. It serves as a guide on dealing with the lottery’s randomness so you can make better game decisions. Some people have certain personal lucky numbers, and they tend to play for these numbers in their daily lottery pursuits. However, playing on a particular pattern every day is not the best action to take. A good lotto game strategy is one that involves planning your moves well. This is where combinatorial and probability theory greatly helps. It gives you knowledge of the probability of your selected pattern to make a better game plan. Based on this knowledge, you could note the frequency by which this pattern will occur overtime or a given number of draws. Therefore, you will know when to skip some draws and when the best time to play is. This is advantageous because you can save money from the days you skip playing as you wait for the ideal time to play. Lotterycodex gives you a great gaming plan. This is a plan that contains the best pattern to use and the best time to play. More lottery analysis for you:

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