It’s a question I get asked a lot.

Along with simply ‘which lottery is the best?’ (to which my tongue in cheek answer is… ‘the lottery that just paid you the jackpot.’)

The Best Odds Of Winning

But it is a serious question, because the odds of the game are the number one factor that determine if you win or lose.

The lottery with the best odds is usually the one with the fewest balls drawn. So a pick 3 game is of course easier to win than a pick 4 game. Which is why the pick 3 prizes are much smaller.

Prize Matters

This is the hidden half of this question.

Because, yes you really want the game with the best odds. But you also want the jackpot to be big enough to get you excited. And the key is how you balance the two.

Yes, it’s great to win the pick 3 jackpot – but if winning that money won’t change your life at all, then you’re not playing the right game.

Compare Lottery Games

To compare lottery games well you need to understand the odds, and have an idea of how big a win would change your life. To make this super easy, use my tool to help you compare lottery odds.

Then you can pick which lottery game has the best odds for you.

Ever wondered what happens to lottery winners who choose the publicity option?

Here’s a reminder why you should not get too carried away sharing the excitement of your big win…

A group of 30 factory workers and craftmen from Avellino in Italy won 33 Million Euros on Italy’s SuperEnaLotto in January 2008.

Now winners are normally anonymous in Italy anyway. But the SuperEnaLotto syndicate were obviously very happy with their win and were not quiet about it.

Unfortunately their good fortune reached the ears of the local Camorra crime clan, who asked around to find out the identities of the lucky winners – and then paid them all a visit. Not surprisingly they were successful in extracting 40,000 Euros out of a good number of them, presumably to help with their protection.

Avellino prosecutor Rosario Cantelmo said that police learnt of the pay-outs while investigating extortion rackets against other local businesses. Five suspects were arrested.

So when the day of your big win arrives, and the lottery company asks you to do a press conference, appear on TV or in a newspaper advert… say no and stay anonymous. Have a party to celebrate but don’t announce to the world why. Your life as a big winner will be a lot smoother.

Otherwise you too may find out what happens to lottery winners…

Last week a Ryanair passenger gets so angry he eats his winning lottery ticket.

This week Ryanair gets hit by 50 claims to have been that angry customer. And can they have the money please.

Now I’m sure budget airline Ryanair is used to angry passengers… but normally passengers can correctly recall what they were angry about. Amusingly, only 10 of the wannabe scratchcard munchers were even passengers on the Poland to UK flight!

Unfortunately none of the remaining 10 bizarre claimants will be getting the money either. Ryanair confirmed that without being able to produce the winning ticket, the claim cannot be verified. A spokesman for Ryanair said:

Unfortunately, when the passenger ate his scratch card he chewed away his chance to pick up the €10,000 cash prize, which will now go to charity.

The moral of the tale being either a) don’t drink while flying, or b) it’s worth investing in that anger management counselling before you hit the jackpot.

I get asked this type of question quite often.

Surprisingly the answer depends on you.

The UK has various lottery games, from Hot Picks to Thunderball. All with different odds, all with different prize divisions and amounts. Some with very different methods of play. So it’s certainly confusing!

All lottery games balance the odds against size of the jackpot, i.e. bigger jackpot = harder to win. So the answer really depends on how big a prize you want to win.

Here’s Why…

Ignoring Hot Picks for just a moment.

Daily Play actually gives you the best odds of winning ANY prize (at 1 in 7.4), and the best odds of winning the top prize (1 in 888,030).

But of course that top prize is much smaller than the other games at just £30,000 – bigger jackpots are harder to win, right?

Hot Picks confuses this slightly too as you have to specifically choose which prize level you want to play for, Match 1, Match 2 etc. Most of the prizes are too small to bother (you may as well just play a slot machine!). But…

• Pick 4 odds are 1 in 14,126 for a £7,000 prize
• Pick 5 odds are 1 in 317,814 for a £130,000 prize

So both are actually easier to win the big prize than Daily Play. But remember with Hot Picks there are NO other prizes for matching less balls.

So while Pick 5 is nearly 3 times easier to win the big prize than Daily Play, and the prize is more than 4 times bigger – it’s Match all 5 or you get nothing at all.

So What Can You Do..?

All of which means – choose the game with the best odds, that offers a jackpot that’s big enough for YOU. Don’t simply go for the game with the biggest jackpot.

To help you figure out which game gives you the best chances of winning use my new lottery compare tool.

And, get in touch if you have any questions about the lottery.

In case you missed it, EuroMillions rolled over again last week.

Which makes the jackpot this Friday one of the biggest seen at a rather crazy €129 Million.

UK players are hoping this will be a home win, creating the largest UK EuroMillions winner ever. The current record holder is Les Scadding from Newport in South Wales who banked a mere £45.5 Million in November 2009. If a single player hit the jackpot this Friday they would win around £113 Million.

Want To Play..?

If you want to play this Friday but with a better chance of winning. And you wouldn’t mind sharing the jackpot, then think about playing with these guys. You get 36 times the chance of winning, and you could still walk away with a couple of million each.