Aussies love a quick-pick at the Lotto. And the old mantra certainly holds true: the only way to improve your chances of winning is by buying more tickets.
Buy by suburb and improve your chances
Recently released data suggests that the luckiest Lotto suburbs include Sydney's west side.
The 2009 breakdown was as follows:
- Greystanes is considered 'Lotto Lucky' and heads the list with almost $10 million won by players who purchased tickets there in 2009. The Greystanes agency recently sold a winning 1st division ticket which realized a return of $8.5 million.
- Campbelltown paid out over $5 million in winnings in 2009, qualifying it as the 3rd luckiest suburb in NSW, but it really sold the highest number of 1st division tickets.
- Castle Hill, Fairfield, Northbridge, Sydney City and Birron are other notable lucky suburbs that have received tremendous public support.
The stats don't lie
Liverpool with postcode 2170 has been the luckiest suburb in NSW with over 18 Lotto millionaires being crowned since 1985.
Areas such as Randwick, Wentworthville and Blacktown weighed in with 9 millionaires while Cabramatta celebrated its $23.99 million Lotto mega-winner in 2008.
Ironically, the fact that so much publicity was created around the Lotto hype meant that more people were buying tickets in these listed suburbs - and others - causing a far denser concentration of potential Lotto winners.
Do what feels right
During 2009, a record was set for Australian Lotto when a South Australian and a Queenslander both shared a $106.5 million payout.
It makes precious little difference to the rules of chance where a ticket was purchased; all that can be predicted is that more winners will emerge from areas selling more tickets.
And then again there is that irrefutable fact: you simply can't win if you don't have a ticket!