Some may remember the tale of the dinner ladies from Balfour Primary School who claimed a £2.1million lottery win a few years ago; a scenario that reinforced the fact that the old slogan, “it could be you”, rings true. In addition to this, a genius mathematician actually worked out how people can give themselves a higher chance of winning the jackpot. Could more Brighton residents look to these figures for inspiration and claim the life-changing money that comes with a lottery win?

    Earlier this year Dr John Haigh, an emeritus reader in Mathematics at Sussex University, told readers of the Daily Mirror the best way to achieve lottery success. Obviously, there is no magical way to cheat the system and pick the correct numbers, but players can improve their chances of being the sole claimant of a lottery jackpot if they pick numbers that other players are unlikely to have chosen. Haigh reasoned that a high proportion of lottery players choose numbers based on the birthdays of friends and loved ones, so were limited to choices of figures between 1 and 31. He surmised that picking a set of numbers that totalled over 200 was the best way forward.

    This theory proved to be correct in January this year when a total of 256 came out and only two lucky ticket holders went on to share a record breaking rollover amount. Had the two winners not opted for Haigh’s theory, then the vast sums of money would have been shared by all the players who had picked five correct numbers.

    Selecting the higher numbers is only one factor to consider when shooting for lottery triumph, though. Many believe that partnering up with friends in lottery syndicates is a sure-fire way to turn the odds in their favour. This was certainly the case of the dinner ladies, who won enough cash each to pay for things they had only dreamt of before.  A family trip to Disneyland, a flash new car, and a fancy property were all on the agenda for the joint-millionaires.

    These days, you don’t even have to know a group of like-minded friends to be able to get in on the action, as lottery syndicates can now be joined online. Playing this way means you pay the same amount of money for a greater number of tickets. Of course, if you win then you have to split the money with the other members, but let’s face it, you’ll still come out with significant sums of cash.

    The main thing that indicates that Brighton residents are likely to win the lottery is the fact that the residents there feel they are the luckiest people in the country. A 2006 survey found that 93% of inhabitants of the city thought of themselves as lucky. Other research such as Derren Brown’s television special “The Secret of Luck” has found that people who think they are lucky are more likely to actually be the recipients of good fortune.

    If you follow these tips and believe yourself to be an auspicious individual, then who knows, the next person to bag the life-changing treasure could be you.