Buying all of these lottery tickets is an investment

Buying all of these lottery tickets is an investment

I've never really considered myself a lucky person. Sure, every once in a while I'll be fortunate enough to accidentally get an extra hamburger thrown in with my fast food order, somehow jump into the most quickly moving checkout line at the grocery store, occasionally win a little radio contest. But, overall, I suppose I'm no luckier than the next gal.

But whether I'm feeling lucky or not has absolutely nothing to do with my commitment to playing the lottery every day. You don't need to be lucky to make money playing the lottery - you just need to stick with it and be smart about it. As far as I'm concerned, all of these lottery tickets I buy every day are simply an investment.

By Dana Stope

Believe me, I'm not stupid enough to spend up to $50 per day if I were not someday going to profit from it.

And it is certainly not for my health that I drag my ass down to the 7-11 store after work every day and hold up the cashier line for 20 minutes placing my numerous daily wagers for the Michigan Rolldown, Daily 3 Game and Daily 4 Game, plus whichever of the other big games are running that day - Michigan Millions, Big Game, Keno and the new Big Game Mega Millions.

OK, so sometimes I spend more than $50. But hey, no risk, no reward. And this is an investment, remember; I'll no doubt see that money back.

On top of all of those chances to win, I further increase my odds of hitting The Big Payoff by grabbing, oh, I don't know, maybe $20-30 worth of whatever instant tickets happen to strike me that day. There are a lot of different kinds of these scratch-off tickets and they're always coming out with new ones, so I really have to be on my toes to keep up with how each of them are played, how much you can win and which ones have the best chances of being winners. Hey, nobody ever said that earning money through the lottery was easy work!

Fortunately, I've become pretty friendly with a lot of the cashiers at the 7-11 where I make my daily lottery investments. They're always tipping me off as to which instant tickets have been paying off lately, which new tickets are good ones and if any ticket spools have just been replaced with a fresh roll (everyone knows there's always a winner somewhere in the first 10 tickets of a new roll). I call these cashiers my investment "advisors." They always seem to get a kick out of that.

After I make my investment, I usually have just enough time to drive home and scratch off my instant tickets before I have to start getting my daily tickets laid out on the kitchen table for the televised drawing. After the drawing, I separate the winning tickets from the losing tickets and compute the day's profit or loss.

Whether I've lost money or won money that day is not really important. Sure, it feels great to win money; likewise, it can be mentally devastating to have lost on every single ticket for the day, as I have often done - more times than I care to remember, in fact. However, smart investors such as myself know it is imperative not to become discouraged by repeated short-term losses. In the long run, the ability to dust myself off and go right back to the ticket counter the next day will be a major factor in beating the lottery.

And sometimes even losing presents an opportunity! Let's say I invested $75 on tickets today and lost on all of them. That only means that my odds are twice as good that I'm going to win big tomorrow! So what do I do? I invest $150 tomorrow, when it's almost certain that I'll score a big win. Some of my biggest win/loss swings have been recorded by following this formula.

Speaking of investment strategies, about two years ago, on my lottery-playing friend G-Dog's recommendation, I bought a copy of Dr. M. Harding's book How To Win The Lottery - The Essential Guide. This book changed my life. It helped me refine my investment strategies and reinforced the fact that I had known all along: it is indeed possible to make money playing the lottery.

In his book, Dr. Harding concedes that, yes, the lottery is a game of chance. But he proves beyond a doubt that certain lottery entries are much more likely to win than others. He mathematically shows that it's true!

I'm not going to give away all of the book's secrets (you'll have to buy the book; after all, Dr. Harding deserves every penny of his royalties for compiling this awesome text), but here's just one of his incredible findings: "Out of the 14 million available six-number combinations (in a six out of 49 lottery), about half (51.3%) contain twins (two consecutive numbers). Thus, it does not matter whether you have twins in your entry or not - your chances of winning are the same. If, on the other hand, you have three consecutive numbers in your entry, your chances are drastically reduced - only 4.5% of all combinations have them." I had never realized this. I corrected my investment strategy that very day!

I highly recommend Dr. Harding's book to anyone who wants to get serious about making money off of the lottery. Hey, I've been investing in the lottery for years now, and all of my records indicate that I am totally heading for The Big Payoff. Anyone can do it. You just have to keep your head and remember that you're involved in a long-term investment. If you're expecting immediate results, you're probably (but not necessarily!) headed for a harsh wake-up call. But if you can find the will to stick with it, you'll soon become as disciplined and tenacious of an investor as I am.

Happy investing!