Pets

Should you pick your own lottery numbers or buy a quick pick ticket?

Do people win the lottery more often by choosing their own numbers? Or is a random quick pick ticket the same?

Quick-select tickets are without a doubt a popular and convenient way to play the lottery. But surely your chances should be better if you carefully select the numbers yourself. It is not like this?

Some definitely believe that choosing lottery numbers is an art. While others would swear that using numbers that came to them in a dream or in some other esoteric way will clearly be winners.

It is certainly true that using your ‘chosen numbers’, no matter how they were selected, gives you a certain sense of control over the lottery. And it will definitely create a comforting feeling that you were right if your ‘system’ wins even a minor prize. But the real picture requires a step back to see the events more clearly.

States and countries around the world spend a lot of money on their lottery machines and staff. They go a long way toward ensuring that the draw is fair to all players. And that means they go out of their way to make sure the giveaway is random.

But in addition to this effort, also consider that the numbers we pick are actually just marks on a ball (for most lotteries).

So, will the ball with the number 7 be drawn more often because many people think of the 7 as a lucky number? No. Because it is actually the balls that come out of the lottery machine, not the numbers. The numbers themselves have no way of affecting the outcome of the draw at all.

The fact is, a quick pick ticket actually has exactly the same chance of winning as a ticket made up of carefully selected lucky numbers. Like a ticket created by a “smart” computer program. Or a ticket created by any other means.

It may not be that much fun, but if you’re in a hurry, a quick pick won’t affect your chances of winning the lottery.