Joining a Syndicate and playing a System Entry is the one thing all lotto experts (including the Lotteries themselves) agree helps in winning lotto. But if you prefer to play alone, here are the other Top 9 tips from LottoMasta International. A 45-ball lottery is used for illustration but the concepts apply to all 6-ball lotteries.

Avoid having all 6 lottery numbers under 31; payouts are generally much lower when all the winning lotto numbers are under 31. For example, NSW State Lotto (Australia) had 27 First Division winners on 9 Oct 2000, when all the winning lotto numbers were under 31. Imagine going to bed thinking you had won a million - and waking up to find you had $37,037! Lotto experts refer to this as the Birthday Numbers Syndrome.

Play the "LottoMasta Guaranteed Winning lottery numbers Strategy." By playing every lottery number in your lottery - You are guaranteed to have all 6 winning lottery numbers, in as little as 8 or 9 games. With just one ball guaranteed correct, your Lottery is now a 5-from-44 game. The odds for this are 1-in-1,086,008 (45-ball lottery). While it is still a 1-in-a-million shot, that is a lot better than a 1-in-a-8-Million shot ! And this simple technique takes 2 minutes and requires only 8 games for a 45-ball lottery, 9 for a 49-ball lottery. Any edge you can get in a game that requires beating odds of 8,145,060-to-1 (45-ball lottery) or 13,983,816-to-1 (49-ball lottery)is worth having.

Has your lotto game changed the total number of balls? If so, you need to change your lottery numbers. For example, if you are still using numbers up to 40, from when Australian lotto was a 40-ball game - add some new games with lottery numbers over 40. The total combinations possible from 40 numbers are 3,838,380. The combinations possible from 45 numbers are 8,145,060. If your numbers are all under 40 - more than half the combinations that can win are missing from your games!

A 20-year study by LottoMasta International shows that the most probable winning lotto result has 3-odd lottery numbers and 3-even lottery numbers. This comes out 1-week-in-3 (on average) and represents 33.5% of the 8,145,060 possible combinations. Add 4-odd lottery numbers plus 2-even lottery numbers, and 2-odd lottery numbers plus 4-even lottery numbers - and you cover 81% of all possible results. Put another way, these three game types win (on average) 8 weeks out 10. The "8 weeks out of 10" rule above is reasonably consistent across all 6-ball lotteries - check it out for your lottery.

In both theory and practice, a winning lotto result with no consecutive lottery numbers occurs around 1-week-in-2 on average (47% of the 8,145,060 possible combinations are of this type). A winning lotto result with just two consecutive lottery numbers accounts for 40% of the 8,145,060 possible combinations. Together, that is an almost 9-weeks-out-of-10 occurrence (87%). These figures hold true for most 6-ball lotteries.

Try to keep "balance" using games with three high lottery numbers and three low lottery numbers (33% of the possible combinations are of this type). Balanced entries do best - try not to have more than 3 numbers in any set of 15 (1-15, 16-30 and 31-45) for a 45-ball lottery, not more than 3 numbers in any set of 16 (1-16, 17-32 and 33-49) for a 49-ball lottery.

82% of all lottery results, in theory and practice, are of two types. The most probable lottery result will have no winning lottery numbers from the previous week (40% of the 8,145,060 combinations) or just one winning lottery number from the previous week (42% of the 8,145,060 combinations). This means that this game type result wins (on average) 8 weeks out 10

Learn about your Lottery. Most of the above facts are from 2 books - 1,000 Weeks of Lotto - What Worked, What Didn't (a 20-year analysis of Australia's Saturday Night lottery results) and Winning Lotto Secrets. Both are available from or LottoMasta International, PO Box 196, Bond University, Qld 4229, Australia.

Absolutely the most important tip of all for winning lotto - Play Sensibly. Money for feeding your family is just that, NOT for buying lotto tickets. Play with money you can afford to lose, because most weeks that is exactly what will happen. You can improve your chances of winning lotto, but spending money you can't afford to lose is downright dumb. Do not do it. Please!

Constructing your games using these rules - and using all the numbers in your lottery - is the simplest, easiest, quickest way to improve your chances of winning lotto. In the Lottery, it's true that anything is possible - but some things are more probable than others! Play the high-percentage shots and watch your luck improve.

Did You Know - You can use Microsoft Excel's "Combin" function to calculate your odds.

About the Author

LottoMasta International, author of "Winning Lotto Secrets", "1,000 Weeks of Lotto" and "Powerball Strategies", offers these great tips on winning lotto. Terry Fishers Lottery Wins include 6 winning lottery numbers in March 2006 and again July 2006.