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1. Join a Syndicate and play a System Entry. It's the one thing all lotto experts (including the Lotteries themselves) agree on. But if you want to play alone, here are the other Top 9 tips from LottoMasta International. The statistical examples use a 45-ball lottery for illustration but the CONCEPTS apply to all lotteries.

2. Try to avoid having all 6 numbers under 31. While it is not an absolute rule, payouts are generally much lower. As an example, NSW State Lotto (Australia) had 27 First Division winners in its draw on 9 Oct 2000. Imagine going to bed thinking you had won a million - and waking up to find you had $37,037! Lotto experts refer to this as the Birthday Numbers Syndrome.

3. Play all 45 lottery numbers (or all the numbers in YOUR lottery) - You are GUARANTEED to have at least one ball correct, in up to 6 games. And it only requires 8 games. Win just one ball guaranteed correct, your Lottery is now a 5-from-44 game. The odds for this are 1-in-1,086,008*. While it is still a 1-in-a-million shot, that is a lot better than a 1-in-a-8-Million shot ! And this simple technique takes 2 minutes and costs under $5. ANY edge you can get in a game that requires beating odds of 8,145,060-to-1 is worth having.

4. If you are still using numbers from when Australian lotto was a 40-ball game - add some new games with numbers over 40. The total combinations possible from 40 numbers are 3,838,380*. The combinations possible from 45 numbers are 8,145,060*. If your numbers are all under 40 - more than half the combinations that can win are missing from your games. Has YOUR lottery increased the number of balls?

5. The most probable lottery result has 3-odd lottery numbers and 3-even lottery numbers. This comes out 1-week-in-3 (on average) and represents 33.5% of the 8,145,060 possible combinations. Add 4-odd lottery numbers plus 2-even lottery numbers, and 2-odd lottery numbers plus 4-even lottery numbers - and you cover 81% of all possible results. Put another way, these three game type results win (on average) 8 weeks out 10.

6. A lottery result with no consecutive numbers occurs around 1-week-in-2 on average (47% of the 8,145,060 possible combinations are of this type). A lottery result with just two consecutive numbers accounts for 40% of the 8,145,060 possible combinations. Together, that is an almost 9-weeks-out-of-10 occurrence (87%).

7. Your lottery results are more balanced using games with three high lottery numbers and three low lottery numbers (33% of the possible combinations are of this type). Balanced entries do best - try not to have more than 3 numbers in any set of 15 (1-15, 16-30 and 31-45).

8. The most probable lottery result will have no lottery numbers from the previous week (40% of the 8,145,060 combinations) or just one number from the previous week (42% of the 8,145,060 combinations). That's 82% in total - meaning that this game type result wins (on average) 8 weeks out 10.

9. Get a Lottery Education. Most of the above facts are from 2 books - 1,000 Weeks of Lotto - What Worked, What Didn't (a 20-year analysis of Australia's Saturday Night lottery results) and Winning Lotto Secrets. Both are available from or LottoMasta International, PO Box 196, Bond University, Qld 4229. Most lotto players resemble a golfer trying to hit a hole-in-one - while blindfold! Learn about your lottery!

10. The most important tip of all - Play Sensibly. Money for feeding your family is just that, it is NOT for buying lotto tickets. Play with money you can afford to lose, because most weeks that is exactly what will happen. You can improve your chances, but spending money you can't afford to lose is downright dumb. Do not do it. Please!

Constructing your games using these rules - and using all the numbers in your lottery - is the simplest, easiest, quickest way to improve your lottery results.

In the Lottery, it's true that anything is possible - but some things are more probable than others! Play the high-percentage shots and watch your luck improve J .

* Use Microsoft Excel's Combin function to calculate your odds.

Terry Fisher, CEO of LottoMasta International, PO Box 196, Bond University, Qld 4229, Australia and Double Million-Dollar Lottery Winner. If you have never seen a million-dollar lotto check - there's two on - http://www.lottery-and-lotto.com and http://www.winning-the-lottery.com and http://www.power-ball-pro.com