Mathematician reveals how to be more likely to win the lottery (and the most common mistakes)

Ryan Garibaldi, a mathematician from California, unveiled different tactics to increase the chances of taking home a lottery big win, as well as the common mistake players make that can lead to never winning.

“You're not going to increase your chances of winning by using your own particular way of picking the numbers for the drawing,” Garibaldi told WIRED.

He thus referred to the fact that there are no safe strategies, and that the probability of winning depends on how big the prize is.

Now yes, to win, the best thing is not to have to share and that is why he recommends not making some mistakes such as choosing a complete column of the ticket or very popular numbers. 

The mathematician has dedicated himself for a long time to analyzing the probabilities and the best ways to obtain money through the lottery, becoming a specialist.

His book, titled

, was ranked No. 3 on Amazon's self-help book list in 2013, according to a New York Post review.

The specialist indicates that there are some games that are easier to win than others, but the higher the probability of getting it right, the lower the prize, giving the example of roulette: if you bet on red or black, there is a greater chance of winning, but you get less money than if you bet on a particular number and it is selected. 

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Similarly, the chances of winning on a Powerball Jackpot or Mega Millions ticket are very low, about one in 300 million. 

However, Garibaldi explained,

, the best thing is to be the only one and not have to share or divide it, for which he advised players to choose less popular numbers.

He does not recommend, in this sense, choosing dates or an entire column (because others will do the same). 

A woman touches a sign in the window for good luck announcing the prize of the winning Powerball ticket of more than 2 billion at Joe's Service Center, a gas station in Altadena, California, on January 6, 2023. Damian Dovarganes / PA

He suggested that one option

although that doesn't really "increase your chances of winning," joked the mathematician, who runs the Center for Communications Research in La Jolla, California.

However, having sequential numbers will mean you don't share the jackpot if you hit it, and that's not a very common choice. 

There is a good precedent: a man from Florida Richard Lustig won the lottery 4 times in his hometown for more than a million dollars by choosing sequential numbers.

In his book, Garibaldi breaks down some ideas for his sequential number method that can be used for any type of lottery game in any country or state.

Although, he said, some states have a better chance than others: lotteries where not many people buy tickets and the jackpot is very large. 

One formula, which Lustig has used, is to reinvest your lottery winnings into buying more tickets, using his "golden sequential" strategy. 

[How the man who won one of the biggest lotteries in Europe spent $257 million in just 8 years]

Playing all the possible combinations

is also not an option, because they are hundreds of thousands in the biggest prizes, "but for smaller lottery games, with fewer tickets and also reduced prizes, some people have done it."

He mentioned several cases: in New South Wales in 1986, in Virginia in 1992 and in the Irish national lottery.

"In these cases, they didn't manage to get 100% of the tickets, but they bought enough to get lucky and win the jackpot."

But it will be necessary to go to the lottery to buy all the tickets, and it may also be that someone else is trying the same thing.

This is the strategy of New Yorkers to choose the numbers of the Mega Millions

Jan 13, 202303:22

One method that Garibaldi shared as very convenient was to choose

, also in a six-digit box.

"You're going to bet on a four-digit number with repeating digits, like 1122 or 1212, and if you're betting on a box of six, bet on all six possible ways to write a number with two ones and two twos on it," he shared.

"If you do that, your odds of winning are 1 in 1,667, and in most states, if you're right, if you win this bet, you'll walk away with $800, which means you have a reason to go to the lottery office." , he pointed.

Then he immediately clarified: "You will probably lose money, just a heads up so you know."

“There is no recipe for making money, but there is a recipe for getting to the lottery office with as little effort as possible,” she added.