Just how do you choose your lottery numbers?

There are many different ways and they can lead to some big wins. June 15 saw the Set For Life draw produce ten second-tier winners, far more than often but why?

The ten lucky tickets each won £10K a month for a whole year, beating the previous record of four in a single draw. When it comes to choosing your numbers, some players just opt for a Lucky Dip. That’s what two of the ten winners did but what about the other eight winning tickets?

The Mystery Solved

The answer appears to lie in the television show ‘Lost.’ The series told the story of an airliner that crashed onto a South Pacific island. Still lost as to what this has to do with a big lottery win? Well, the 18th episode of season one told how Hugo ‘Hurley’ Reyes won a $114m lottery jackpot. The numbers that won him that fictional prize were 04-08-15-16-23 and 42.

Four of those numbers came out in the June 15 Set for Life draw. Research has shown that over 200 people played numbers for that draw that included five of the six Lost numbers. Could that have caused the larger than usual number of second-tier winners? The numbers drawn were 04-15-21-23-42 and the Life Ball 02.

Andy Carter is the Senior Winners’ Advisor at the National Lottery. He said that “it seems this TV show has consciously or subconsciously engrained these numbers into many of our players’ heads. Many people have lucky numbers and it seems that the traditional lucky 7 or birthdays route is being challenged by numbers from popular culture.”

This isn’t the first time a television show has influenced the choice of numbers. Two years ago, Francisco Rios from Hartford in Connecticut, USA, went all the way back to the 1950s for his numbers. He saw a 1958 episode of the show ‘Bronco’ in which someone had been buried in a glacier for 22 years, 2 months, 18 days, 12 hours, and 28 minutes. He used those numbers to play the Cash 5 draw and ended up winning $100,000.

Fortune Cookies Work Too

There have been even stranger ways of securing a big lottery win. Last April, American Charles W. Jackson won a massive $344m Powerball jackpot. The numbers he used to win came from a fortune cookie given to him by his granddaughter. They had produced a series of smaller wins before making him a multi-millionaire. He wasn’t the only player who had a fortune cookie to thank for his win. A Michigan player won a $351,180 Fantasy 5 prize using the same method.

Using birthdays and anniversaries are a common way for players to select their lottery numbers. It can bring big wins too as David Trapp from California, USA, found out. He went down that route and the family birthdays won him a $61m Mega Millions jackpot in 2018. When Frances and Patrick Connolly won a £114.6m EuroMillions jackpot, all the main numbers were in the 1-31 range.

Sometimes though, it can pay dividends If you change your numbers. English couple Richard and Dionne Buss did that and won a £1.9m UK Lotto jackpot. In the USA, Karen Harger left her Powerball play-slip in her car, so had to use a quick-pick ticket. That proved to be a great decision as her ticket won her a $1m Powerball prize.

However, you select your numbers for tickets purchased at Lottery24, hopefully it will lead to a big win.

Buy Your Tickets Now at Lottery24.