In fact it happens so rarely that you have better odds of being hit by lightning, winning the Congressional medal of honor or winning the Nobel Prize than winning the lotteries.

They are built the way they are to make it seem that it is easy to pick numbers. How easy is it to pick numbers? Let’s see from the California Lottery what the odds are…

How to Win California SuperLotto and Odds of Winning
To win you must have one of the following matches against the number actually drawn:

Match 5 Plus Mega (Jackpot Win!) Odds = 1:41,416,353
Match 5 (No Mega Match) Odds = 1:1,592,937
Match 4 Plus Mega Odds = 1:197,221
Match 4 (No Mega Match) Odds = 1:7,585
Match 3 Plus Mega Odds = 1:4,810
Match 3 (No Mega Match) Odds = 1:185
Match 2 Plus Mega Odds = 1:361
Match 1 Plus Mega Odds = 1:74
Match 0 Plus Mega Odds = 1:49
Overall Odds of a win is 1:23

Okay, so the starting pay out is something like $7 million dollars? The odds of you winning are one out of 41 million? That doesn’t sound like such a great deal. Yes, if you win, it is all worth it but realistically they should be paying you out $41,000,000. So, even if somebody wins out of the chute and they get $7,000,000, they have not paid out what the bet should have been worth.

What does that mean to you? If you really want to play or feel that your numbers are the lucky ones (and you may be better off going with random number Quick Picks to maximize your chances) you should wait till the jackpots are over $41 million. Otherwise, you aren’t getting your bang for your buck.

Here is a profitable idea – how about taking each $1 that you want to invest in the lottery and place it in a savings account or donate it to charity each time you want to play the lottery? If you keep track of your donations over a year, two years or five years you will be pleasantly surprised at what your newly found savings or donations can do!

So, if you are also ready to see how your odds stack up, check out some of these comparisons:

Odds of going into a bowling alley and bowling a 300 game: 11,500 to 1

Odds of going to the golf course and getting a hole in one: 5,000 to 1

Odds of getting canonized: 20,000,000 to 1

Odds of being an astronaut: 13,200,000 to 1

Odds of winning an Olympic medal: 662,000 to 1

Odds of injury from fireworks: 19,556 to 1

Odds of injury from shaving: 6,585 to 1

Odds of injury from using a chain saw: 4,464 to 1

Odds of injury from mowing the lawn: 3,623 to 1

Odds of fatally slipping in bath or shower: 2,232 to 1

Odds of drowning in a bathtub: 685,000 to 1

Odds of being killed on a 5-mile bus trip: 500,000,000 to 1

So, your best deal is to save a dollar and don’t take a bath while taking a 5 mile bus trip in a lightning storm while mowing your lawn with a chain saw!

Kim Greenblatt

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