Lottery Habits
Lottery players are quite often creatures of habit. The majority of us tend to buy our tickets from the same handful of local lottery retailers and we often use the same numbers from week to week, either because it's convenient or because we believe it gives us a greater chance of winning. We tend to check our numbers in the same way, either having a habit of watching the draws live on television, checking the numbers on teletext or looking at the draw results the next day in the newspaper. Many of us also keep our lottery tickets in the same place for safe-keeping.
There is nothing particularly wrong with any of these lottery habits, but I think that we do need to be careful to guard against developing the habit of having a "herd mentality". This is where we get into the habit of following what we see others doing or read about them doing in magazines and newspapers just because they happened to get lucky.
For example, an individual may read that a particular lottery player won a Euromillions jackpot when they entered a Lucky Dip line instead of their usual set of numbers, and immediately plan to do the same in the very next draw. Or another individual might see a news report about a player who bought a scratchcard on the way to work and won a six figure some in a matter of seconds, and then decide to get a scratchcard for themselves the next time they have the opportunity.
The problem with developing the habit of following others blindly is that it can, if we aren't careful, increase the chances of us having to share any jackpot that we are eventually lucky enough to win. For example, if we read that a certain handful of numbers haven't come up for a while, and that one person believes that playing them would give a better chance of winning (they would, of course, be wrong) then we might decide to do the same. The problem here is that hundreds, if not thousands, of other players are likely to have the same idea, and if by some fluke that handful of numbers comes up, the jackpot fund would have to be divided between all of you.
When playing lottery games, certain habits - such as when you buy your ticket and where you keep it safe - are harmless and sometimes even helpful. But others - most notably the habit of following the example of others - could actually backfire. I therefore recommend that, as far as selecting your numbers is concerned, you aim to be as unique and individual as you can.
Article Last Updated: 09/10/2007 15:37:05
