Question: Assume that game payouts are fixed (not pari-mutuel). Will following the advice of the lottery expert increase your chances of winning the lottery? (This is a multiple choice question - your answer should be exactly one word - either Yes or No.)

There are many lottery games in the United States. One of them is "MEGA Millions" offered by the State of California (and a number of other states). In this game, five of seventy white balls labeled {1, 2, . . . , 70} will be selected at random and without replace- ment. In addition, a gold "MEGA number" will be selected independently from the white balls from the set {1, 2, . . . , 25}. Players mark the five numbers and the mega number on tickets that they buy from a Lotto retailer. Each play costs $2. Drawings take place on Tuesdays and Fridays every week

Three of these tips are stated below.

HIGH-LOW TIPS:

PLAY: mix of 3 high/2 low or 2 high/ 3 low numbers

Winning numbers are usually spread across the entire number field, If we split a number field in half, we have the low half and the high half. In a 75-number game like MegaMillions, numbers 1 to 38 would be in the low half, and numbers 39 to 75 would be in the high half, All high numbers or all low numbers are rarely drawn, occurring only 3% of the time. The best mix is to have 3/2 or 2/3 which means three high and two low, or two high and three low,

REPEAT HITS LOTTERY TIPS:

PLAY: no more than one number from the last drawing

In the 5/75 MEGA Millions, on average, one or more lottery numbers will be a repeat hit from the last drawing only about 33% of the time, 2 or more numbers repeated occurs less than 4% of the time.

CONSECUTIVE NUMBERS:

AVOID: too many consecutive lotto numbers in a combination.

Even four consecutive numbers is a very rare occurrence that, in most Lotto games, has never happened once.