Revealed: How you can GUARANTEE a National Lottery win by buying just 27 tickets – but why mathematicians say there’s a catch
- Academics present a method of winning at least something when playing Lotto
- READ MORE: Expert reveals how to increase your chances of winning the lottery
Brits have puzzled over the best way to win the National Lottery ever since the first ever draw nearly 30 years ago.
Many of us have ‘lucky numbers’ that we pick week in week out, while others leave it to fate by making a selection at random.
Now, mathematicians claim they know how to guarantee a Lotto win – and tests by MailOnline suggest that it does indeed work.
Buying no less than 27 tickets, each with a specific combination of numbers, is the secret to winning a prize, they reveal.
However, at £2 per ticket – or a hefty £54 for 27 tickets – you won’t necessarily make a profit even if you do win.
It could be you: Researchers say you need 27 tickets to guarantee a win on the UK National Lottery
Pictured, the 27 number combinations. These are the numbers you should pick on your 27 tickets if you want to be guaranteed a prize. The researchers say: ‘The reader may check for themselves that any draw of six numbers from 1 to 59 will match at least two numbers with at least one of the above tickets’
READ MORE: How to increase your chances of winning the lottery
Your ‘lucky numbers’ may not work
The new study was led David Cushing and David Stewart, two mathematicians from the University of Manchester.
They stress that no less than 27 tickets will get you a prize, although they’re not entirely sure themselves why this is.
‘We identify 27 tickets that guarantee a prize, regardless of which of the 45,057,474 possible draws occurs,’ they say in their paper.
‘Moreover, we determine that 27 is the optimal number of tickets required, as achieving the same guarantee with 26 tickets is not possible.
‘The hard part in proving the theorem is to show that there does not also exist a set of 26 tickets that work.’
The National Lottery became a public phenomenon and a fixture of Saturday night entertainment when it made its debut in November 1994, hosted by Noel Edmonds.
The format for the main game – known as Lotto – is simple; for a cost of £2, you pick six numbers ranging from 1 to 59 prior to the draw.
You win a cash prize of £30 if three of their numbers are drawn, although a free Lucky Dip is given if you get two numbers right.
A Lucky Dip gives you another go, except that the numbers are randomly selected for you.
Successfully matching all six numbers wins you the jackpot – anywhere from £2 million to £12 million.
For their study, the academics used a process called finite geometry, where different number combinations are visualized as points in geometrical shapes.
The National Lottery became a public phenomenon and a fixture of Saturday night entertainment when it made its debut in November 1994, hosted by Noel Edmonds (pictured)
National Lottery: Prize breakdown
Two numbers: Free Lucky Dip
Three Numbers: £30
Four numbers: £140
Five numbers: £1,750
Five numbers plus the bonus ball: £1 million
Six numbers: Jackpot
They were able to identify the 27 number combinations that you should pick if you want to be guaranteed a prize in a single draw.
The researchers say in their paper: ‘The reader may check for themselves that any draw of six numbers from 1 to 59 will match at least two numbers with at least one of the above tickets.’
To try this out, MailOnline randomly picked six numbers that might be the result of a hypothetical National Lottery draw – 4, 18, 29, 48, 49 and 52.
Sure enough, if MailOnline had purchased 27 tickets with the different number combinations as per the researchers’ instructions, we would have got three tickets with two matching numbers, and one ticket with three matching numbers.
Therefore, we would have won three Lucky Dips and £30 – although this would also mean we’d be down £24 having spent £54 on 27 lottery tickets.
Unfortunately, Lucky Dip tickets don’t let you choose your own numbers, and so couldn’t be used to try the process again.
Ultimately the team’s system seems to be geared towards being guaranteed some sort of prize, even if it’s not at all substantial.
The academics used a process called finite geometry, where different number combinations are visualized as points in geometrical shapes (pictured)
The two mathematicians say: ‘We are pleased that we could describe this rather elegantly using some basic structures coming from finite geometry.’
A spokesperson from Camelot, the company that operates the National Lottery, told New Scientist that the study makes ‘interesting reading’.
‘Our approach has always been to have lots of people playing a little, with players individually spending small amounts on our games,’ the spokesperson said.
‘It’s also important to bear in mind that, ultimately, Lotto is a lottery.
‘Like all other National Lottery draw-based games, all of the winning Lotto numbers are chosen at random.
‘Any one number has the same and equal chance of being drawn as any other, and every line of numbers entered into a draw has the same and equal chance of winning as any other.’
The study follows advice from an American mathematician for winning the lottery, including opting for ‘unpopular numbers’ and refraining from making the same selections each time.
Curse of the lottery! FEMAIL reveals the multi-million pound winners who regret hitting the jackpot
Many of us spend our lives daydreaming about winning the lottery and what we’d do with the multi-million pound jackpot.
But if previous winners are to be believed, scooping the top prize isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Self-employed Steve Thompson, 46, from Selsey, West Sussex, won the massive jackpot back in 2019 after playing the lottery for 25 years.
The builder and his wife packed up their £150,000 three-bedroom terraced house and moved to a £4.5million sprawling estate in Kent.
But his pals told The Sun that Mr Thompson longs for his former life – and he’s not the only winner who seemingly regrets their supposed good luck, with several believing it changed their lives for the worse.
FEMAIL has revealed the winners who apparently believe they lost out in the end.
Read more
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