US Powerball
468 million (USD$)
Sat, Dec 09, 2023
Lottery wheels explained
A lottery wheel system isn't nearly as mysterious as people would have you believe! It's just a way to play combinations of a set of numbers. Football pools players will be more familiar with the term 'perms' or permutations.
Take a look at our senario below - using numbers 01 to 07
In your average pick 6 numbers from 49 lottery game, lets say you want to pick 7 numbers and play every combination of them. When you write down all the possible combinations of those 7 numbers, it should look like this -
| Line Number | Numbers Played |
| 1 | 01 02 03 04 05 06 |
| 2 | 01 02 03 04 05 07 |
| 3 | 01 02 03 04 06 07 |
| 4 | 01 02 03 05 06 07 |
| 5 | 01 02 04 05 06 07 |
| 6 | 01 03 04 05 06 07 |
| 7 | 02 03 04 05 06 07 |
See how the pattern looks like the columns of numbers rotate - hence the 'wheel'.
If you played this 7 number lotto wheeling system, it would cost you the same as any other 7 lines. It would also give you 7 times the chance of winning the jackpot - just like any other 7 lines - because the more lines you play, the better your chances of winning!
Wheeling can’t improve your chances of winning the jackpot. Your chances are exactly the same as if you played the same number of lines containing any combination of random numbers.
But what about multiple lottery prizes?
This is where it gets interesting. The jackpot isn’t the only prize in the lottery. There are 3 ball prizes, 4 ball prizes and 5 ball prizes. So what happens if you entered using your lotto wheeling system of 7 numbers above, and the numbers drawn were: 01 02 03 04 48 49
You've won a prize. Well actually, not just a prize, you’ve won 7 prizes!
| Line Number | Numbers Played | Prize Won |
| 1 | 01 02 03 04 05 06 | 4 ball prize |
| 2 | 01 02 03 04 05 07 | 4 ball prize |
| 3 | 01 02 03 04 06 07 | 4 ball prize |
| 4 | 01 02 03 05 06 07 | 3 ball prize |
| 5 | 01 02 04 05 06 07 | 3 ball prize |
| 6 | 01 03 04 05 06 07 | 3 ball prize |
| 7 | 02 03 04 05 06 07 | 3 ball prize |
So you've actually won 3 four ball prizes AND 4 three ball prizes. Just because you used a lotto wheeling system. Therefor, if the numbers in your lotto wheeling system come up, you will win multiple prizes.
But there is a catch. If you wheel a small selection of numbers, you select less of the total available numbers. In our wheel above we are only using 7 numbers out of the 49 possible. The result of this carries two very important facts:
- You are actually less likely to get any win, but...
- When you win, you will win more.
Wheeling works by enhancing your winnings
It is possible to enhance your winnings - NOT your CHANCES of winning. Very important difference.
For example, while jackpot payouts are big numbers, the amount you actually get depends on how many people win the jackpot at the same time that you do.
Believe it or not thousands of people play the line 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06 every week. They realise that these numbers although 'unlikely sounding' have just as much chance as any other combination of being drawn. But what they aren't aware of is that if they do come up, they will be sharing their jackpot with thousands of people. Instead of getting a couple of million, they will get about a thousand for a jackpot win!
It is important that this doesn’t happen to you (see Picking your Lottery Numbers).
The fact is – the more entries you play is the most important factor, followed by not playing 'commonly played' lines. Consider saving up your entries and playing once a month instead of once or twice a week. 5 lines in one draw have a better chance than 1 line 5 draws. Ok, it's not quite as exciting as being in every draw, but winning makes up for that!
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