Gambling Questions: How Can I Win A Life-Changing Amount Of Money?

This is the one question we all want to know the answer to!

The simple answer is, the only way you are going to win a huge amount of money is by getting extremely lucky. That said, many gamblers don’t pay any attention to the probabilities or “house edge” in the games they play, prefering to think instead “if it is my lucky day, then it is my lucky day - end of story”.

Take what is probably the world’s most popular punt : a lottery. Lotteries appeal to players in just about every country and every culture on the planet. They are simple and relatively cheap to enter, and they often hold out the promise of a huge reward for the winning ticket-holder. So why not buy two tickets, thus doubling your chance of winning?

The truth is by buying two tickets you don’t increase your odds of winning. Or rather, you do increase your odds of winning slightly, but you also increase your chances of losing. This comes as a surprise to most players, but you just have to stop and think about it for a while to see that it is true. Suppose you wanted to be absolutely, 100% certain of winning a lottery. To do this you would need to buy every lottery ticket in the event - and thus you cannot fail to win.

What players tend to forget, however, is that by buying every ticket in a lottery they are actually guaranteeing that they lose. The cost of all of the tickets would be far higher than the value of the prize. So the closer you edge towards this situation, i.e. the more lottery tickets you buy, the more certain you are to lose overall. Your increased chance of winning the top prize is more than off-set by your increased chance of losing a higher stake.

So what would be the optimum number of tickets to buy in a lottery, in terms of balancing the chance of winning with the chance of losing?

None!

A lottery usually offers terrible odds, and the lotteries with massive prizes offer the worst odds of all. In terms of risk and reward, you are far better off playing other games with large prizes - or even settling for a slightly smaller win with a higher chance of winning it. Smart players use casino sign-up bonuses to play high-reward games with the casino’s own money rather than their own, so that they increase their chances to win big without risking any of their own stake.

For example, if you place your money on a single number at a roulette table then you’ll be offered a payout of 35-1, and your chance of winning is 36-1. So a $10 stake on a winning number will return $3,500 - which is a handy amount, if not exactly life-changing. Your chance of losing is nil, if you use the bonus dollars that the casino gave you to try out their software. Given that some casinos offer several hundred dollars as a sign-up bonus, you could even try staking $100 or so on a single number - your potential prize is now $35,000. If you lose - no problem, you can up-sticks and try again at the next casino.

Just remember to play at a reputable casino, and ensure that you understand the terms and conditions of the bonus (some casinos try and tie you up with small-print, or make their bonus dollars “sticky” so that you cannot cash out if you do win - see our online gambling survival guide for what to watch out for).

You also need to find casinos offering generous sign-up bonuses for players new to their casino. RushmoreCasino is a good place to start, with $888 up for grabs at the time of writing.

Related links:

Low minimum deposit casinos.

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