Anyone who plays any lottery has wondered if there is a way to boost their chances of winning.

If you've worked through the numbers you will realise that the only sure way to win is to buy a ticket for every possible combination.

This is not profitable! It would mean spending more money on tickets than you would win. (Yesthat's how they make their money!) And even if you did buy every possible combination of numbers, you may end up sharing the jackpot with another winner, diluting your winnings still further!

So are there any practical steps you can take?

Well there are some steps you can take to increase your winningsbut not much you can do about the odds of winning the jackpot by yourself.

I've seen software that analyses past numbers, generates random numberseven dream programs to help you dream the winning numbers! I'm sceptical and haven't tried them allbut that's because I don't believe they will work!

One thing you can do is not to pick the numbers that everyone else would pick and so if you do win you will most likely win a greater prize as you are less likely to be sharing the prize with someone else.

Many people pick numbers that are special to them and many of them are based on datesso you can assume that the numbers up to 31 (the maximum number of days in a month) are likely to be more popular than the numbers over 31.

The other way to boost your chances is to join a syndicate.

This is a group of people who come together to share a range of numbers and lottery ticketsand to share any winnings. So you could expect a lottery syndicate to win more oftenbut would it give more winnings to the members?

Well that depends entirely on how it's been set up. Typically the ones I have seen are fairly disorganised, people join and leave and it is difficult to manage. The numbers change and the winnings could be better or worse than playing individually.

If you could bring a well thought-out system to running a lottery syndicate it is possible to improve things substantially.

For reasons which I will try and explain it is best to have 49 people in a syndicateone to cover every number in the lottery (assuming it is based on 49 balls!)

Trying to get 49 work colleagues together is virtually impossibleand calls for a virtual solution! Virtual World Direct have stepped in to provide such a solution. Their website system allows you to join a syndicate of people that they have put together into one group. You don't need to look for colleagues, administer it or share out the winningsthey do it for you. And just like an offline syndicate you can join or leave when you wantno obligation!

A great service - convenient, simple and fun.

Anywaywhy 49 in a syndicate? Well they fix one of the six numbers so that each of the 49 numbers is covered and then with 5 other randomly generated numbers they create 44 separate lines. 44 separate lottery entries for the syndicate and each of the 49 numbers is covered in a separate line.

This is cleverit means that the syndicate only has to match 5 of the 6 lottery draw numbers to win the jackpot - because the sixth ball will always match.

But it's cleverer than that because the syndicate also wins more than the jackpotanother of the 44 lines will win 5 plus the bonus ball and then of course the other 42 lines also win by matching 5 numbers!

Add all those multiple wins together and divide by the number in the syndicate and you win more than you would have done if you played solo! It's tricky to explain in a couple of paragraphs but the essence is that the syndicate wins multiple times.

In fact your odds of winning increases by 702% in the UK National Lottery Lotto draw!

And they have done the same trick with the EuroMillions draw. If you are not familiar with this it is as big as many of the multi-state lotteries in the USA. Why? Because 9 countries in Europe are all playing it! And more want to join in!

It is the biggest tax-free lump-sum national lottery in the world! If you were watching the news earlier in 2006 you will have seen that it rose to an incredible '125m rollover (yesthat's in GBP not dollars or euros!)

Being a part of this lottery syndicate increases your chances of winning by a staggering 3600%! Increasing the odds of winning any prize to 1 in 10 and it means you can win a prize by matching just one ball!

So next time you are trying to find another person to join your lottery syndicate and wondering whether it is worth the hassle, think again. Get someone else to run the syndicate for youand if you join the right syndicate, it could boost your chances of winning as well!

Copyright 2006 Andy Gray