Do you employ a system for choosing your lottery numbers? If therefore, are you aware that using such a system might actually reduce your prospects of landing a big win? The only way to genuinely enhance your chances of winning the lottery is to buy more entries - and do not let anyone tell you differently, it's just a matter of statistics. In contrast, you'll find some steps that one can take to be certain that, in the event that you do win, you are more prone to win a larger amount. Let's use the UK lottery being an example. Every week that there's a jackpot winner it appears that the prize is shared among a amount of people. Consequently, the simplest way to maximise your winnings in the event that your particular numbers are chosen is to minimise the amount of people you will need to share the prize money with. Although there are no guarantees in a game of chance such as a lottery, there are several ways by which this may be done.

To start with, it's surprising how many people use dates to select their numbers. It can make it easier for them to remember should they want to play the exact same numbers every week and they can also attach feelings of good luck to certain dates, for example birthdays, anniversaries etc. This means the "date numbers", 1 to 31, are picked more frequently. So make sure that you have at least 2 or 3 numbers outside of this range.

Do not pick numbers which have recently been drawn. Many people believe in "hot streaks" and will be selecting these.

Do not pick numbers based on an arithmetic sequence e.g. 2, 4, 6, 8, toto 4d 10, 12 or 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24. This really is a really common practice and also you may wind up sharing your jackpot with a lot of mathematics teachers!

Don't pick numbers which form a pattern on the entry slip, e.g. a cross or a box. Again this technique might be more widely used than you may imagine and also you might have to express your prize with a great deal of folks.

Don't employ a tips service to select your numbers. It does not matter whether the service is determined by some advanced statistical analysis, the amount of ink on each ball or even the dream visions of some spaced out hippy, you will not be the only person using it and so you will be guaranteed to find yourself splitting your winnings with a whole bunch of other winners.

The most effective way to pick your numbers is at random. You can draw them out of a hat or use one of a range of random generators that are available online for just that purpose. This won't improve your chances of winning - but at least if you do win you will be a lot less prone to have to discuss your loot with a couple of dozen other "lucky" punters.