The million dollar question, or nowadays, the billion dollar question: What is the secret to winning life-changing lottery jackpots? Or even winning smaller ones that can gift you tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars?

Everybody wants to know those answers. Sometimes the winning secret is as simple as just dumb luck. But many players don’t want to trust random numbers, they want an approach, a way to get to the promised land that makes them feel good because they have a plan.

So what are the most popular methods for winning million dollar lottery jackpots?

1. Quick Picks

Let’s get this method out of the way. You just let the machine pick the numbers for you. This is no method at all but since it is a popular approach used by lazy players, it has to be mentioned. And what fun is it if you put no effort into getting winning numbers?

2. Using Past Results to Predict Future Drawings.

All systems used by serious lottery players are based on an analysis of past winning results. They could be simple, tracking hot numbers (numbers that have hit more frequently than expected over a predetermined recent number of drawings or overdue numbers (numbers that have been scarce in recent drawings) or any of numerous systems, from basic to extremely complex, to analyze past results as a basis to predict future possibilities.

I could write thousands of pages on the endless strategies you could use to beat the lottery based on past results. Indeed, I have written close to 1,000 pages already and barely touched the surface. However, all serious strategies begin with the number of regressions, that is, prior games that you wish to incorporate in your strategy. Will you use a 10 game regression? 25 game regression? 50 game regression? 100 or 100+ game regressions? A combination of regressions? Are you pulling numbers that are hot, cold, overdue, come in clusters, come in other combinations? As I outline in my Level III advanced strategies called the “colored papers,” strategies used by very serious lottery players, there are also very advanced patterns you could base a winning lottery strategy on: key numbers, wizards, counts, kings, queens, muscle numbers, sparks, step down plays, and so many more.

There are available winning strategies based on past winning results you can follow that vary from very simple to very complex. Let’s look at some other strategies lottery bettors use.

3. Using Birthdays & Special Days

Hey, using anniversary dates are actual winning strategies used by millions of players trying to win a game-changing lottery jackpot. It’s not much of a strategy unless you hit a huge jackpot, in which case, I won’t argue about the merits of your strategy for that particular approach. But really, these are just blind luck plays that lottery players sometimes hit. Millions and millions play this way and you hear about a few of these lucky folks. The rest keep flushing these money down the lottery toilet. You can win this way, but like they say, throw enough turd against the wall once in a while something is bound to stick.

4. Using Horoscope or Numerology

Lots of players believe in horoscopes or numerology or other “alternative” approaches as a way to guide winning numbers to your lottery tickets. If that’s your thing, have at it. But like picking notable anniversary-type days, it is a random way to generate numbers and has no basis in anything other than the player’s belief that some random idea will generate a winner. Think for a second: If these approaches have merit, how about the thousands of other players doing the same exact thing and coming up with the same exact numbers? All of these random people are onto something?

5. Your Lucky Number

If you really have a lucky number, well, you should damn sure play it. It’s lucky and as they say in sports, or in life, it’s better to be lucky than to be good. Enough said!

6. Combo Approach

If you do some regression analysis of past results to come up with a winning approach and combine that with a lucky number or some combination of lucky numbers or other numbers from stars aligning in your favor or a special date that works for you, this combination can bring you the best of two worlds.

I hope this quick guide to choosing winning lottery numbers is the first step of your journey to win the big jackpot!