The National Lottery in the UK is celebrating 25 years of handing out massive cash prizes to lucky winners.

The odds of winning the jackpot are as steep as ever, at more than 45 million to one, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t put your best numbers forward and hope to get lucky.

As for how you choose those numbers, everyone has a method. One man in America played the numbers he got in a fortune cookie and reaped the rewards.

In the office, we play a numbers game when we buy a ticket together.

Whatever your methods, in the end, it all comes down to chance. Still, there’s nothing wrong with looking into the stats to see if any patterns jump out.

According to Sky News, UK National Lottery winners had the following things in common:

• The most common number drawn is 40, and it’s appeared 382 times in 25 years
• The most common pair is eight and 10, drawn 48 times.
• 7% of all lotto winners have used birthday dates, while 4% use a mix of dates and ages
• Car registrations are also popular
• One winner used a chicken to pick his numbers. It pecked them out on a calculator.
• If you want to up the luck, you can join a group of friends or co-workers. Groups win one in five lottery prizes – which reminds me, it’s time we took an office ticket again…
• Men named Derek, David, or Dave scooped the jackpot four times, but women tend to win bigger prizes.
• Drivers and builders are more likely to win the lottery.
• 14% of all winners kept their tickets in a bag, wallet or purse, while 11% put it in a cupboard or drawer. 9% locked it in a safe.

The ideal lottery winner is, therefore, a woman named Dave who works as a builder or driver, owns a clairvoyant chicken, and favours the number 40.

Right, that’s the UK covered, but what about South Africa? Extreme Lottery has been keeping a close eye on which numbers recur, and how often, in the South African National Lottery:

These are the four numbers that come up together most frequently:

And finally, not choosing these numbers could cost you the jackpot:

It might be time to add numbers four and 12 to your Lotto ticket.

If you use the above stats to pick your numbers and win big, please let us know so we can share in your joy.

And whatever you choose to do with your winnings, for heaven’s sake, quit your job.

[sources:skynews&lotteryextreme]