The Befores & Afters

Lottery winners had many stories to tell before and after the win the Lottery. Some of them are happy, funny and some maybe tragic. Just like what Frane Selak had experienced before winning the Lottery. If you would be in his shoe, you might feel that you were the unluckiest person in the world ever created.

Selak was a Croatian music teacher born in 1929. He became famous because of his successful escapes of various fatal accidents for so many times.

It was in January of 1962 when Selak was traveling from Sarajevo to Dubrovnik via train, when the train suddenly derailed and plunged into an icy river. The accident had killed 17 passengers leaving Selak suffered only a broken arm and some minor scrapes and bruises. After that successful escape of Selak, another incident happens the following year when the planes door he is boarding blew away from the cockpit that forced him to be out of the plane. Nineteen were killed in this tragic accident while Selak was successfully landed in a haystack and got minor injuries from it.

After those accidents the Selak had experienced, it was in 1966 that he then again brought near to death when the bus he was riding suddenly crashed and plunged into a river. While four of the passengers were killed, Selak feeling so lucky when he was able to escape from it, unharmed. In 1970, Selak made another successful escape when his car flamed due to a faulty fuel pump. Three years after, his car was then again caught in fire, and he got no injuries at all and save the loss. If you think his tragic experiences are already over, you are wrong. It was in 1995, when a city bus hit him, but then again, he suffered only some minor injuries, and in 1996, he was able to drive off a cliff in order to avoid an oncoming truck. Frane was able to land in a tree and watched his car explode about three hundred feet below him.

However, despite all those tragedies and successfully escaped from them all, Frane Selak get even more lucky when heavens paid back the sufferings he had experienced and won in the lottery the jackpot amount of USD1,000,000 in the Croatian lottery.

Lottery winners really have various stories. Another great story was the funny experience of a 57-year-old man when he mistakenly doubled his share of the jackpot. How does this happen? It was when Derek Ladner together with his wife Dawn were getting overjoyed upon knowing that their six regular numbers were the numbers that completes the set of winning numbers in a midweek draw on 2007. The couple quickly claims their £479,142 share of the £2,395,710 jackpot split among the five winners. However, a week later, Mr. Ladner suddenly remembers that he had bought another ticket of the same numbers for the same draw. The forgetfulness of Mr. Ladner made him have a two share of five in the lottery jackpot, which is an isolated case.

Chance would be a fine thing!

Winning in a lottery is perhaps a very nice dream and totally a fantasy. Even with the slimmest chance to win such, many still consider to pay for the tickets and try their luck over and over again. As humans, we can’t blame such players because of the undisputed pot that ranges to huge sums of money. Even if the probability of winning is quite slim, yet many still ventures out.

There are pools of numbers that must be decided, combined and pinked by players to limited ones. How will you then maximize those combinations to increase your chance of winning? As a player you need to keep track of previous lottery winning combinations. After getting this information, synthesize the numbers that are commonly picked and numbers that are not. In here at least you can see a pattern of the numbers even though randomizing them are the keys in any lottery. Another option to increase your chance in this game pot is to play it in groups. These can either be formed manually or you can enroll yourself in an existing one. The concept behind group lottery is that members chip in specific amount of money which would be use for buying the tickets. Then each member can opt to generate their own number combinations provided that it would not have a duplicate with the others. The chosen numbers are then compiled and will be picked as different lottery tickets. If a specific combination won, then all members of the said group will divide the total earnings. Some groups opt to have a computer to randomly generate the numbers to assure of no duplication. The group can be as little as a handful or as many as a hundred. But always bear in mind that you would always split the jackpot to the group. Thus more individuals and members in it would be more dividing.

A lottery group is preferred by many even if the money would be partitioned in the end. For one, buying a sole ticket would mean a very slim chance of winning the jackpot. This is a true fact since there are many possible number combinations among a pool of number. To increase their probable chance of winning, some even tend to buy more tickets in just a single transaction. This can be a good strategy but one can get to spend a huge amount of money. Thus a lottery group is always a convenient option to buy in more tickets for less. At least in this kind of procedure, many individuals of the same vested interest in lottery to gather and generate numbers in a greater scale. In here many will buy tickets for the benefit of the group. Thus one can only spend a minimal amount mostly a weekly contribution to gather and to spend in buying tickets. In this, losing a little amount wouldn’t hurt than spending much on the tickets. Whether you chose an individual play or a group lottery play is totally your own choice and preference.

The Good Side Of The Lottery

When we hear of the word lottery, gambling is the one that comes first in our minds. For the knowledge of those who are not aware, lottery also brings goodwill to the human race. Just like what the Big Lottery Fund did. They have given hope to the young people overseas for a brighter future.
Just recently at September 2, 2008, when a UK based charity International Childcare Trust (ICT) will use the £500,009 award for their project of giving a bright future to the thousands of children in Western Kenya. They charity will be working in five rural and semi-urban project sites, which happens to be the second poorest province in Kenya wherein 56 percent of the population is living below the poverty line. Children in this area do not have the opportunity of a primary education or drop out from school because they do not have enough money to support their school expenses. Some of them are in poor health conditions, while others are experiencing sexual abuse and violence.
According to the Asia Programme Officer at the International Childcare Trust, Philippa Loates, ICT in partnership with WEAEP or Western Education, Advocacy, and Empowerment Programme are thankful with the awarding of a five-year grant by the Big Lottery Fund. They said that this grant will give create a big difference to over 140,000 children in Western Kenya, for the charity can now provide the children with primary education, food, medicine for good health and hopefully the children of Western Kenya can now earn respect and will be free from sexual abuse and discrimination.
Philippa Loates, in behalf of the Children of Western Kenya, thanked the Big Lottery Fund for the big help they had offered.
Aside from Western Kenya, the young people in Fort Dauphin will also be one of the successful people who can get a chance to make a change with the help of lottery cash. Fort Dauphin is one of the least developed regions in Madagascar. The region also got high rates of sexually transmitted infections and has low capita incomes. Another London based charity Azafady got a grant of £303,087 for their use of promoting safe sex practices and will reduce the rate of other STIs among 13-24 years olds as well.
They are expecting the project to create mutual support systems among schools, health services, youth associations and opinion leaders, and will be in the form of activities such as workshops, education programmes, mass mobilization events and distribution of information leaflets.
Another grant amounting to £487,295 had been awarded to the Welfare Association. The group will be working with the people in the Tripoli region of Lebanon in addressing the needs of the refugee families who are being removed from the Nahr el Bared Palestinian refugee camp because of the recent fighting of the Lebanese army and the Fatah al-Islam group. Refugees got an awful health conditions and may need some that are in-need of pre-natal conditions, maternal and mental health and some psychological disorder. With the help of the lottery grant, they will have the chance to build a community health groups that will address these health needs, tackle relocation challenges as well and will eventually introduce micro-credit lending schemes in order to re-establish local business and will encourage some employment potential.
If you will say that lottery is nothing but merely gambling, think a million times today.

How To Play The Lotto

Lottery outlets can be found on places that people frequents such as malls, grocery stores, gas stations and even convenience stores. Sometimes these outlets are strategically located on places where people can access them easily such as plazas or corner streets of the business district.

Five popular lottery games that have been played for a long time, regularly, and take note that there are also lottery games that are being introduced once in awhile but do not stay long.

The Lotto game is the lottery that offers the highest winnings among the five types. To play this game, a player must pick six numbers from a range of number. The range of numbers depend on what is being played for the day: it can be 42, 46, 47, 49, 51 and 54. Then the player should mark the chosen numbers on the play slip provided for this purpose. The marked play slip must be submitted to the lottery agent who will enter the chosen numbers in the online terminal. The terminal will provide a ticket that functions official receipt as well. The game ticket will be the same stub to use if the player will claim the prize, if he wins. One ticket is equivalent to one chance winning of lotto and it may cost a dollar to play. After paying, ensure that the date and numbers are right before leaving the counter.

The next type of game with high winnings in lottery is Little Lotto. Instead of marking six numbers from the play slip, the player will play and mark five numbers in the play slip after choosing from the fields provided for Little Lotto. He can choose five numbers from 35 fields or 36 fields, depending on which days those fields will be played. Like the Lotto, he will submit and pay for his ticket to the lottery agent and the ticket will be given to him as a receipt. Like lotto, the winning numbers will be drawn within the day and will be announced so that winner can claim their prize.

For everyday draws, player can choose the Dailies where he chooses top play Pick 3 or Pick 4. For the former, he will choose three numbers from the play slip but will have to indicate also if he is playing for the exact order (straight), any order(box), exact/any (straight/box) or combination. For the latter, player will choose four numbers instead of three. The winning of this game is different from Lotto and Little Lotto because it does not depend on the numbers of players but have a fixed payout.

In Powerball game, a player must choose five numbers from the fifty-five fields, and then correctly select the Powerball (one number) from the forty fields.

Instant games, also called scratch offs are a game where the player will purchased a ticket and scratch off the spots. The player does not need to choose any numbers nor put any marks on play slip. If the winning sequence/number is in the ticket, the player will receive the prize.

How The Lottery Works

Playing lottery is not that difficult, it does not require any special skills to participate in a lottery game. In playing lottery, a player should have the willingness to win and money to buy the ticket or play slip. However, of course the player should know how lottery works to be able to understand what the game he is playing all about.

There are different types of lottery games that players can play. The most popular is the Lotto game where high winnings are at stake. The Lotto game prize money however depends on the number of players who joined the game. A prize increases if the prize is not won and keeps on rolling out until someone finally get the right combinations. In Lotto game, there are different fields of numbers to choose from per day. Six numbers can be chosen from 42, 46, 47, 49, 51, and 52 depending on the draw date.

Little Lotto on the other hand has five winning numbers instead of the six numbers of Lotto. This game has better odds and played in more days than Lotto. Little Lotto has two fields to choose from thirty-six and thirty-nine. Like the Lotto game, if there are more than two people who win the drawn number, the prize will be split to the number of winners.

The Dailies is an everyday chance to bag a prize for a smaller cost. It has two kinds of Dailies, the Pick 3 and Pick 4. This can be played in some states at least once a day and seven days a week. The Pick 3 or Cash 3 let players choose three numbers from the field of 000-999. For Pick 4 or Cash 4, four number combinations will be chosen from the field of 0000 to 9999. The play slips for these games have a portion where the player should identify if he is playing for a combination that is drawn as straight, any order, exact/any, or combination. Each order have corresponding amount, for example the straight amounts to a single ticket therefore amounts to 50 cents. The combination is equivalent to six tickets because a player may win if his numbers is drawn as straight or in any order. A corresponding payoff will be given to the winner, which is actually affixed prized. This is different from the lotto because it does not depend on the sales of tickets and on these games, if there is no one wins for a particular day, the amount at stake is not going to be added to the prize of the next day.

Lottery officials in ball-drawing machines draw these games. The balls are numbered and the machine randomly chooses the balls: six for Lotto, five for little Lotto, and 3 for Cash 3 and 4 for Cash 4.

Scratch off or instant games allow players to have fun on picking cards that have pre-drawn numbers or sequence. If the scratched card shows the correct combination, the lucky player who has chosen the right card will bring home the prize.

There are other lottery games that is not frequently played but are introduced every now and them in some states. This are however often than not do not last long like the ones explained above.

Alternative Strategies

Winning lottery is one of the rages nowadays. Although lottery has been here for hundred years now, it is not as popular as it is back then. In addition, since a player has to depend on his intuition and luck, there are different ways that players adapt in order to increase their chance of winning.

Some people depend on mathematics, counting the probability that the combination will win and let the statistics guide them on choosing their numbers. Others look for patterns like how would the numbers look like in the play slip or what is the special number that might be correlated with the draw date. In order to win, people rely on these things, and we are adding more to those strategies.

Although it is a very old method, numerology has been a perfect alternative to picking a desired number. However, you have to learn the numerology to find out what is your lucky number. You can buy many reading resources from bookstores or online.

If numerology is too complicated for you, Astrological signs and Lunar Cycles might be the guide. There are many magazines and newspapers even online who provides lucky numbers depending on your birth sign. Although some says that the sun sign of your is not that accurate compared to the lunar sign, it is still a good lead for your winning numbers.

Charms and amulets are the other alternatives for some people. It is believed that charms and amulets work in magical ways. If you are a person who is inclined on charm objects, buying your ticket when you are wearing your charm might be your lucky day. Some people have different rituals that they have to perform so that the charm will work on your lucky ticket.

Prayers have been the best resort for some people. Who knows, if you asked in your prayers that the money be granted to you through that lottery ticket. It is always worth including it in your prayers.

Others use superstition when choosing the numbers:

• Buying tickets during special relative’s birthdays.
• Special numbers seen on in their dreams are also considered.
• Address of the lottery outlet.
• Pregnant women are considered lucky, therefore they were asked to fill out the number of their choice.
• Any number that seems significant in their life like the Identification Card number or License Card number san also be their basis

Others uses practical strategies such not playing popular numbers like birthdays, date of the draw and numbers from sequence of multiples of odd or even numbers. To increase the chance of winning, some people joins pooling club. This is a club where people pool their money and buys many tickets. Although if the tickets bought will be split into the number of people in the club, the winning chance was increased.

In addition, for those who have the resources, purchase of software that generates numbers like that of Quick Pick Machines is another good option. This might be expensive but the program utilizes many methods such as astrology, lunar signs, database and statistics.

Ionoco Lottery

Ionoco is one of the major new technology forces in the broadcast, lottery and gaming markets. In August 19, 2008, the force announced its launch into the lottery and gaming sector in collaboration with Smartplay International. As everybody knows, Smartplay International is the leading developer and manufacturer of lottery drawing equipment in the lottery and gaming sector. The two leading players will now work together in providing the lottery and gaming industry operators the complete lottery drawing and bingo game service, which made especially to meet every customer’s needs.

How will they do it? Simple! Smartplay’s draw machines will now be installed with Ionoco’s Lottery Draw and Bingo Solutions. With these steps made by Smartplay and Ionoco, they are providing lottery and gaming operators a cost effective and convincing alternative to the classic TV studio approach.

How does it work? Will probably be your next question now. Well, the technology works out when the live TV images of the actual lottery or bingo draw with high quality video, 3D graphics, imaginative real-time number animations and display of player information, are combined all together. After that, it will be fully integrated to the cameras and switchers, resulting the entire draw or bingo show broadcasted through ionoco’s proprietary hardware system. With this approach, operators got a large saving with their TV studio equipments and personnel costs.

Operators and players don’t have to worry in using the system because it has been proven a tested to be simple to operate and it is also completely auditable and secure.

For everybody’s knowledge, this step is a result in a growing relationship between Ionoco and Smartplay where started in Guatemala, wherein the two big players are working together in the said place. In the event, Ionoco system is the one who broadcasted all the draws for the lottery’s three games that are all drawn by Smartplay machines. According to the chairman and founder of Ionoco David Walton, with the want to complete their lottery draw and bingo solution offerings, they are very careful in choosing a trusted partner to supply them with the draw machines, and they have found it with SmartPlay International. The reason they choose SmartPlay International is because of it’s over fifteen years of experience in the field.

On the SmartPlay International side, Their Executive Vice President Thomas Markert said that, their previous work with ionoco made them discover that the company has a unique, innovative, and reliable system that will work out well with their draw machines, and eventually made them able to provide a compelling solution for lottery or bingo draw shows.

For those who do not know, Ionoco is formed through a merger of three existing successful companies which includes, Randomaker, G-Graphics and TV2GO. Under the leadership of Chris Goss, Simon Ingram and David Walton, Ionoco was able to offer a unique and innovative technologies that will transform the broadcast, lottery and gaming markets. The company specializes in sophisticatedgraphics, control and games system for the broadcast, lottery and gaming markets worldwide.