Playing the Free Lotto Games
Ever been to a carnival fairgrounds where a sharp eye can
distinguish the games requiring skill from those rigged so you
can't win? Well just as you learned to spot the games where
you have a fair chance, you can determine the better free
lotto games from those working the carnival trade.
Do They Have the Money?
Never forget, this is the internet where business is virtual,
not brick and mortar. This is mail-order on a screen, it
could be a solid company and then again it could be a guy
in his underwear working out of a P.O. Box from his garage
or basement.
Whether the prize is a thousand dollars or a million dollars,
look at how they intend to pay it. Check the rules, if the
game is void in states like Florida where they are required to
prove they can pay the prize, maybe they won't be able to?
What About "Void In"?
If the rules say void in certain areas, but don't lock you
out from playing, go ahead and write to them and ask what they
will do if a person from your state playes and wins? If they
are somewhat agreeable go ahead and play with reservations
as though playing only for fun. If you win a jackpot, you may
be able to negotiate collecting in a neutral state. The trick
here is trying to determine if the company is honest enough to
try to find a way to pay you anyway, or looking for an excuse
not to pay. If you write and they say the rules exclude
you from playing, run don't walk away from that game.
What About Those Odds?
Thought I'd found a nice little 6/30 game (odds 1 in 593,775)
till a re-check of the rules found the numbers had to be
picked in "DRAWN ORDER" changing the odds to 1 in 475 million!
Jackpot odds are simple, you divide the number of combinations
you are allowed to play in a single drawing into the number of
possible combinations in the game.
The odds of a jackpot in a 6/49 game are 1 in 13.9 million
while the odds in a 6/54 game are 1 in 25.8 million so you
need to play double the number of combinations in a 6/54 game
for your odds to be equal to those in a 6/49 game. The odds
of the biggest game 6/94 are 1 in 814 million, but they start
you off with 70 free combinations and you can earn more.
What About Those Sponsors?
Some of the sponsors would give a carnival barker a run for
his money, others are perfectly legit. Anything you agree to
sign up for (even if just to be nice) will result in several
more e-mails in your box a week for months. Some games will
just ask you a question: "Do you enjoy cooking?" answer yes
and be e-mail invited to join a recipe club. Be especially
wary of some new high odds games that automatically sign you
up for membership at their sponsors as a price to play.
What About those Shills?
You've seen the sites, the banners, the posts, "We have all
the free lotto games." "We have the best free lotto games."
Not all of these games are worth playing, either the prize is
too low or the odds too high. The "best" games often means
the best for the webmaster affiliate who strangely enough can
only find those games who pay him to funnel players.
Learn to look at links or urls being offered. A clean url
will often look like www.happylotto.com/ while one with an
affiliate tag reads www.happylotto.com/ref?cgi/lumpydog so the
game knows which of it's shills to pay. It is never a good
idea to sign up for anything offered by a shill who's spamming
usenet news groups as their accounts will be closed shortly.
If you still want to play without rewarding a spammer, you can
always backspace over the affiliate part of the url on the
Subject: line and hit [enter] again.
Now it would be foolish for a webmaster to refuse to carry
some affiliate links that are happy to pay him a few cents for
clicks or signups, the point is to be wary of sites that have
only affiliate links, as they may not have your best interest
at heart.
State vs In House Drawings
Some free games use the draw results from official games as
their winning numbers, so you are essentially playing in that
game, abet for much lower prizes and at lower odds of having to
share the prize. The big plus is no one can skew the numbers.
When it comes to in-house drawings, it's a gamble, check to
see if they've had any big winners. The games that pay are
the ones to play.
Why Play These Games At All?
For the lottery player, some of these games offer a wonderful
chance to play against drawings in other states, to test new
ideas, to apply strategies at no cost or risk. Some people
simply can not test on paper, they have to be playing the game
to get their brain working on the problem, free lotto games
let you play while you learn.
Strategies
Play games that offer state odds for jackpots worth winning.
Some offer enough free tickets you can apply wheels to weave a
web of combinations. Some free games use the same state
drawing results so you can take advantage of this to play
larger wheels by splitting the wheel among several sites. The
free games only pay one prize per player per drawing, so don't
use wheels that guarantee multiple small prizes, better to
play an open (percentage of cover) wheel for a higher (4#)
prize then a guaranteed wheel for a low (3#) prize. Find a
free game that uses your state game for data and double dip.
Summation
There are so many free lotto games these days you can't play
them all, so read the rules and only play those that give you
a fair shake to win and collect. Avoid rewarding shills who
breathlessly break into your news group or e-mail to tell you
about the wonders of a high odds game that just happens to pay
shills for shilling. Use a strategy that takes into account
the nature of the games you are playing so you can get the
most for your time spent on line.
All rights reserved, Lotto-Logix 1999-2002
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