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.

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