A 22-year-old man in Michigan credited his "odd" strategy for him winning $2 million from a scratch-off lottery ticket. The lucky man from Wayne County claims that his strategy involves avoiding even-numbered tickets.
Winning Scratch-Off Ticket Conforms To Lottery Strategy Rule
He told officials of the Michigan Lottery that he went to the Busatti Party Store in Southgate and bought the Diamond Dazzler scratch-off ticket that conformed to his special rule for lottery tickets.
"I like playing instant games, but only buy odd-numbered tickets," the man said. "The Diamond Dazzler game is my favorite, so I asked the clerk what number the ticket was. When she said '21,' I told her I wanted it."
The man decided to receive his winning as a $1.3 million lump sum, and said he plans to buy a new car, and invest the remaining amount.
Strategies To Increase Chances Of Winning Lottery
Other lottery winners also attribute strategy for their luck. Richard Lustig, who has won seven lottery grand prizes, claimed to have perfected his strategy and even wrote a book about increasing chances of winning the lottery.
His tips include not using the "quick pick" numbers generated by the store's computer.
"Every time you buy a quick pick, you get a different set of numbers; therefore, your odds are always going to be at their worst in that particular game, whatever game you're playing. In this case, the hype, of course, is all about the Powerball right now," he said.
He also recommended going beyond numbers that represent birthdays, sticking to a "good number" determined through a strategy he wrote in his book, and playing consistently.
Some, however, discounted his strategies as nonsense and called his tips for winning the lottery as scam.
"Richard Lustig is a get-rich-quick hack with no idea at all of how to beat any lottery," Felix Salmon of Reuters pointed out. "Spending $40 on Richard Lustig's book is a very, very, very bad idea, not least because you'll probably end up spending many times that much money on tickets."
Strategy Or Just Luck?
May it be strategy or just plain luck, some people appear to be more fortunate than others when it comes to winning the lottery.
In 2015, Constance Carpenito won her second $1 million from Massachusetts Lottery. Her first win was in 1996. A couple in Virginia also won the lottery three times in March 2014.
