It’s fun to play the lottery
...and if you happen to pick the right numbers, you could win big.
Unfortunately there are just about as many different ways of choosing lottery numbers and the perfect combination as there are odds of winning it.
Did you know that you have a one in 44.5m chance of winning the big jackpot in the National Lottery? That means that there are a lot of things more likely to happen to you than winning.
Don’t despair though! There are other ways to win big. The best chance lottery to play if you’re after a sizeable jackpot could very well be found here at The Health Lottery.
When you play a charity lottery, even if you don’t win, your community does as a result of the funding your play provides to good causes. There are also more opportunities to win with five Big Win jackpot draws every week (plus two extra second chance draws with £100,000 up for grabs). Even though the jackpots are lower, your odds of winning are much higher. Each player has a one in 2.1m chance of scoring big.
There are also two All or Nothing draws a week, but QuickWin leads the way with a draw every three minutes. That's 480 draws every day (with a prize pot of £12 million!). As it happens, All or Nothing has the best overall odds of any lottery in Britain - and that's official!
To keep perspective though, let’s take a look at some of the events that have a higher probability of happening to you than taking home the National Lottery jackpot.
Against all odds
It’s a big world with endless possibilities.
For example, the likelihood of getting struck by lightning is one in 300,000. Scientists have put your odds of getting hit by a meteorite at one in 1,600,000. However, this number is only a best guess as recorded meteorite strikes are exceedingly rare, with some recorded incidents being questionable at best.
Death by shark bite comes in at one in 3,748,067, with an average of seventy to a hundred shark attacks worldwide every year, of which, between five and fifteen are fatal. On average, you have more chance of being killed by a firework than a shark: one in 340,733.
On a more positive list of possibilities, you have a better chance of becoming a saint, which happens to one in 20 million people. This number begins to favour you more if you happen to be the Pope. Of the approximately 100 billion people that have walked the earth, only around 5,000 people have been canonized thus far. Comparatively, becoming the President of the United States (citizenship notwithstanding), seems much more attainable with a probability of one in 10,000,000. If you are male born on US soil, between the ages of 40 and 72, have a law degree, are a military veteran, and stand over six feet tall, then your likelihood increases significantly.
Want to become a famous actor or actress? You have a one in 1,505,000 shot of seeing your name in lights.
Sports like race walking make Olympic gold seem attainable, but the odds are still one in 662,000.
If space is more your speed, then your prospects of becoming an astronaut are one in 12,100,000.
And finally, a royal flush is about as good as it gets when playing poker; to get one on your very first hand, you are looking at a one in 649,740 likelihood.
As you can see, the odds seem pretty daunting. So let’s take a look at some events that are less likely to happen than winning the lottery. For example, if you have ever played cards, or more specifically, shuffled them, you know that the order in which they fall is always different. The likelihood of shuffling a standard deck of 52 cards and having them end up in perfect sequential order is one in 10^68. Which does mean it's freakish that we all know someone who can shuffle a deck for ages and yet whenever we play with them the cards seem to fall in a very familiar order...
Playing the odds
Don’t let those numbers get you down! The fact that you are reading this is a pretty significant feat in itself. Each person has a one in 400 trillion chance of coming into existence exactly as they are. With that in mind, winning the lottery doesn’t seem like such a long shot after all!
If you enjoy helping your community out by playing a society lottery, there are often other prizes besides the main jackpot on offer. A seasonal promotion may give players an opportunity to win a campervan, a dream holiday, or more.
When you play a charity lottery like The Health Lottery, you may not only improve your odds of winning, but also giving back to the community.
With that combination, and as long as you play responsibly, it's a win-win!
