All or nothing on Christmas day

This Christmas Day, Wednesday December 25, is an auspicious day in more ways that in has been in previous years. Why? Because it is the final day in 2024 when my infallible system for winning UK Lotto will have a chance to show its worth.

Lotto is played (UK residents only) every Wednesday and Saturday and this year, Christmas day falls on a Wednesday too. Which means that we can expect that many people will try their luck on the Lottery. Not me, I don't need luck, I have an infallible system for winning, derived from a system proven to work by The New Scientist and boffins at the University of Manchester.

I have previously written about a discovery by mathematicians of the least number of lines that can be played that will guarantee a win. The discovery was reported in New Scientist edition August 5 2023. They gave a matrix of 27 lines of six-number combinations that they said would guarantee at least one win each time the numbers are played. I have been testing this system ever since and so far, in over a year, it has worked every time.

Check out my previous article on how the system works

I decided to test out the system, purely in the interests of science. My research indicates that there are two flaws:

The New Scientist system only guarantees a win. As made abundantly clear in the article, the system does not guarantee a profit.

Though this was not mentioned in the article, if you won the jackpot using the suggested numbers, you would have to share the win with everyone else playing these numbers. I have no idea how many that might be.

These caveats being understood, I tried the system out a few times just to see how it worked. The results, I have to say, were uninspiring, not to mention draining on my funds. If I kept this up, I would be an even poorer man that I was when I started. I therefore came up with a way of adapting the system to make it (a) more profitable and (b) less likely that I would have to share the jackpot, in the unlikely event that I won it. Does that make me mean? Who cares! More importantly, my modified system means that I can play for a whole year and keep any losses within my means.

But guess what. I tried out my system... and it worked. I started on the modified system in January and have played throughout the year.

On Saturday November 9 2024, my player account ran into profit, wiping out all of the costs since January. On November 9, I made a profit for the year of £56.

Given that it costs £54 each time a game is played using the system, I can now play one more time without winning any more money and will still be in profit by £2. On this basis, I have entered the Christmas Day Lotto draw. This means that if I don't win a bean, I am still £2 in profit. I will have played Lotto several nine times this year at £54 each time and it has ended up costing me nothing. My Christmas Day entry included in the zero cost play for the year.

How does it work?

The August 5, 2023 edition of New Scientist reported on the discovery by a group of mathematics professors that the minimum number of lines needed to guarantee a win in the UK Lotto was 27. At £2 per line, this makes the cost of each game entry £54. The system only guarantees that you will win the minimum prize of a free bonus ticket in the next draw. If that ticket does not win a cash prize you end up with nothing. If you repeated this pattern for each of 52 weeks without a cash win, the total cost would amount to £2,808. Way beyond my gambling risk tolerance.

There is also the issue that, if anyone else played the same numbers, as reported by New Scientist, any jackpot win would have to be shared. In order to improve my chances of winning, incrase the reward in the event of a win, and reduce the cost of a year's play, I came up with my own modified system. It is fully explained here:

In short, the system relies on playing only when the Lotto, having failed to find a jackpot winner in consecutive games will, on the following game, roll all of the jackpot winnings down to other winners. This means that the multi-million pounds jackpot is shared by every other winner. By playing the system only on these 'roll-down' games it means that, if there is no jackpot winner, the system is guaranteed to pay out at least £5 instead of just a no-cash bonus play (two correct numbers). It also means that other prizes are increased. A three-number win usually pays only a paltry £30 but, for a roll-down, might pay as much as £100 or more.

Where do I stand now?

After a full year of playing my modified New Scientist / Manchester University system, starting January 2024, I have amassed £254 in my Lottery account, of which £198 is my original stake money. The £56 remaining is my profit line. That's about 20% profit, which is more than I would have got from saving the money with a bank (up to 5%) and more than most of the best investments I have recently seen. Pretty risky though isn't it? For sure. It is, after all, gambling.

That the December 2024 Lotto is a "Must be won" game means that I have an increased chance of winning a cash prize and winning more than if I had won on a regular game. Even if I win no cash, I will still be left with a £2 profit after my £54 stake.

Assuming the system continues to perform as it has, for me, for over a year, I am certain of winning at least one free bonus play. If there is no jackpot winner and the jackpot is shared, I will win at least £5. If (we are now into the realm of chance) I get at least one set of three correct numbers, I will win £30 minimum for each such line, much more if the game is a roll-down. I will of course have the same chances that everyone else has of winning a bigger prize for each line I play. The main difference being:

I will be playing 27 lines (therefore 27 chances) at no cost

I don't advocate gambling. When I play, it is mostly for fun, with the added excitement of knowing that the winner could just be me. Don't ever play beyond your means.

Wish me luck, and have a very merry Christmas and/or happy holidays however you celebrate them.

Thanks for reading.

Honest Ray