COUNT ON IT I’m a math professor – my trick will help you increase your chances of a scratch card lottery win

A MATH professor has revealed tips to help increase your chances of winning a scratch card lottery prize.

Essa said she uses theories “based on science, probability and math” to share tricks on how to win off scratch tickets.

The math expert says there are techniques you can use to improve your odds.

She shared her insight clip titled ‘Scratch Off Odds: How to Increase your Probability of a Win’ on YouTube.

One of her first essential tips is to make sure the card you purchase actually has prizes remaining to win.

Essa says: “At any time, ten percent of cards have no prizes left at all. You don’t want to pay those games.”

“It’s perfectly legal to keep on selling the tickets, after all the prizes have been won – so do a little research before you buy a ticket.”

Once you’ve had a look at the lottery website and found the cards you shouldn’t be playing, then you can purchase ones you feel confident you might have a shot at.

Essa says from here, there are techniques you can use to improve your odds.

She debunked the idea that winning tickets look different, concluding that any imperfections that could be perceived as a ‘marker’ were likely done in production.

Essa recommended one of the easiest ways to up your chances is to buy in bulk.

She says: “This might cost you several hundred dollars or more, but there’s some very good science behind this tip.

“Scratch off tickets prizes are not random, the winnings tend to be evenly spaced throughout the rolls.

“The manufacturer has a certain dollar amount – say $1 million – that they have to dispense throughout the game.

“If they printed the prizes in a truly random fashion, they could award tens of millions of dollars just by random chance. They have to limit the number of winning cards to a set amount.

“They might have to award 250 winners in every thousand card run, there will some randomness, but not every fourth or fifth card is going to be a winner but you can increase your chance of winning by buying 10 at a time – but it’s not a guarantee.”

She says its a good idea if you’re going to buy multiple cards, to buy them from the same game.

‘BIGGER CHANCE OF A WIN’

In an example, she said: “Imagine you buy cards from the same game with one million tickets in a game with one big prize.

“If you bought 10 tickets, your odds of winning are one out of 100,000. If you buy 100 tickets, your odds increase to one out of 1,000. Buy 1000 tickets, your odds increase to 1 out of 1,000 chance of winning.”

She says this is the logic Joan Ginther, who has a PHD in Math from Stanford University and is famous for winning multi-million dollar payouts four times.

Essa believes Joan used the theory to win big with experts estimating Joan purchased 80,000 tickets worth $2 million – but walked away with $15 million.

The other trick she used was playing cards with higher expected value, which Essa explains is, “kind of like an average”.

She calculated the total amount of remaining prizes divided by the amount of money it would cost to buy all the remaining tickets.

Essa said: “You’ll have much bigger chance of a win, if you play cards with a higher expected value”.

Despite the advice, she warned the odds are heavily stacked against players.

Scratch cards are sold at a range of prices, starting as low as $1 but ranging up to $30.

Essa says: “They’re deliberately made attractive and shiny to sell more.”

She explains there are “thousands of ways” to use probability in real life but believes it can also be used to increase your chances of winning scratch tickets.

The former mathematics professor is now a full-time YouTuber, creating videos covering “a range of statistics and calculus videos”.