New Powerball Lottery Winner: Did He Have A Secret That Could Help You Win The Lottery Too?
A salon nail technician in San Mateo, California won a $228 million Powerball lottery jackpot on Wednesday, and by the next day, Vinh Nguyen came forward and claimed his winnings. Unlike most lottery winners, Nguyen chose the “annuity” option, meaning that he will receive the full $228 million jackpot — before taxes — in 30 annual payments.
But it was Nguyen’s description of how he won the Powerball lottery that is likely to grab the attention of aspiring lottery players who hope to find the winning formula themselves. Nguyen said he is a regular lottery player who chooses his own numbers, not relying on the “Quick Pick” computer to select them for him.
At the same time, the Powerball lottery’s latest multimillionaire said that he had no rhyme or reason to how he chose the numbers.
“They were all random,” said Nguyen, who also revealed that he shelled out 30 bucks for 15 Powerball tickets. “Whatever numbers come into my head I pick.”
So is that the way to win the lottery? Players are always looking for some sort if secret to winning, but the reality is, despite numerous guides on the market that purport to reveal inside tips and tricks to win the lottery, there is no way to increase your chances of winning.
Except one — and that one will give you only an extremely slight edge. Nguyen did, in fact, use that one method. Can you figure out what it is, based on the description of how Nguyen won his $228 million lottery jackpot?
Here are the three most common misconceptions about how to win Powerball, or any lottery. Then we’ll tell you the one move that Nguyen made that actually boosted his chances.
• You have a better chance if you play the same numbers every time.
Wrong. This “system” is advocated by certain prominent lottery “gurus,” but the statistical reality is that the odds of any combination coming up are exactly the same every time. In the case of Powerball, there are 175,223,510 possible numerical combinations. Each one has the same chance of being drawn on Saturday as it did on Wednesday, whether you played it then or not.
•Buying tickets for every lottery drawing increases your chances.
Wrong again. In every drawing, only one combination of numbers comes up. And as explained above, the chances are always the same of any one combination being drawn. That means no matter how often you buy tickets, your chance of winning is exactly the same every time.
•Checking stats on previous lottery numbers will help me increase me odds of hitting the jackpot.
Wrong again! Just to restate, each combination has the exact same chance of occurring every time. How often a number has been picked in the past has no effect whatsoever on whether it will come up in the future.
So, have you figured out the one thing Vinh Nguyen did right that actually helped him win Wednesday’s Powerball jackpot? Though, it didn’t help him much.
The answer is…
He bought 15 tickets. The only way to increase your odds of winning the lottery is to buy as many tickets as possible. Of course, since your chances of winning remain small no matter what, buying dozens of lottery tickets is also a good way to blow huge amounts of money, so even this one method is not recommended by statistical experts.
