Winning
the lottery seems like a daunting, if not impossible, task. But there
are some players out there who seem to have figured it out. So what is
their secret? What do these players do to improve their odds of winning?
How did these players win?
In
2012, the world’s record lotto jackpot of $656 million was won by a
group of friends. Three co-workers from Maryland, calling themselves
‘The ‘Three Amigos’, decided to play Mega Millions together. The
friends, who were all employees of Maryland’s education system, each put
in $20 and bought a total of 60 Mega Millions tickets together.
The
youngest member of the group spread all 60 tickets out on the floor,
watched the results and checked all the tickets. And her hard work paid
off - they had a jackpot winner! She immediately called up her friends,
they signed the tickets, made copies and locked the original away in a
safe. The winning numbers were 2, 4, 23, 38, 46 and Mega Ball 23.
This
record-breaking $656 million Mega Millions jackpot was won by three
tickets, one of which belonged to these ‘Three Amigos’. The three
friends decided to remain anonymous and they split their portion of the
prize three ways. Each of them had different plans about what they would
do with the winnings. One player wanted to back-pack through Europe,
another planned on touring the Italian wine country, and the third
player intended on buying a house for his sister and paying off his
daughter’s college fees.
At
their press conference, the three educators dressed in disguise and hid
their faces behind their gigantic cheque of $218.6 million. We may never
find out who the ‘Three Amigos’ really are, but we do know that playing
the lotto together was their winning formula!
Playing
the lottery in this way, as a group, is also known as a ‘lottery
syndicate’. Lottery syndicates are played all over the world and are
known to be very successful. Actually, 1 in every 3 jackpots are won by
syndicates!
Syndicates can get big
The
lottery has been won many times by large groups of players. The ‘Ocean’s
16’ syndicate that won the US Powerball $448 million jackpot in 2013
was made up of 16 members! This group of 16 called
themselves ‘Ocean’s 16’ after the hit movie ‘Ocean’s 11’ starring Brad
Pitt and George Clooney, and also because they hail from Ocean County,
New Jersey.
They
were all employees of New Jersey’s Ocean County Department of Vehicle
Services and enjoyed buying lottery tickets together. Some of them had
suffered the ravage of Superstorm Sandy that hit Ocean County in October
2012, so this jackpot was a big relief for these lotto players.
The
$448 million jackpot was won also by two other tickets, so the group’s
portion was $149 million. They each took home $3.8 million, becoming
instant millionaires. Not bad for a mere $6 investment each!
As
these co-workers experienced for themselves, the more members you have
in your group, the better your winning odds. This is logical, because
more money in the kitty means that you can buy more tickets! There is
one drawback, though, to playing with so many people – it is a hassle to
set up and manage such a large group.
You
need to recruit members, collect money, chase people to pay what they
owe, purchase tickets, check results and pick up the winnings. The
biggest hassle of all is to make sure that everyone pays on time or even
pays as promised, so that you’re not left paying for all the tickets
out of your own pocket.
Nowadays,
there are lottery syndicates available online that make playing as a
group that much easier. theLotter allows you to buy shares in online syndicates for the world’s biggest lotteries
with no hassle or work involved on your part. All you need to do is buy
shares in the syndicate of your choice, and this online lottery service
provider will do the rest for you.
theLotter’s
syndicate service sets up syndicates in advance, pre-purchases batches
of tickets and notifies players of the results and any wins. You can
kick back and relax as your account gets credited by theLotter with your
syndicate winnings. Easy and very rewarding.