The 10 Commandments of Playing Lottery -

  1) Never, Never bet more than 5% of your net (take home)
     income on playing the lottery - Remember lottery 
     playing is a mild form of gambling.

  2) "Pool" your tickets with freinds at all possible -
     It is better to win 10% of something than 100 %
     of nothing. Now that I've said that - be sure if
     you do pool to do the following:
            
     A)  Make sure you get a list of the numbers played.
     B)  Make sure a contract or some written document 
         is prepared spelling out the rules of the pool,
         the participants and their signatures, 
         notification etc.

  3) The most important thing to know about forecasting
     possible winning sets of numbers is the following -
       
           KNOW THE LAW OF AVERAGES  !!!!

     The law of averages states - given a large enough
     sample size ANY STATISTIC WILL APPROACH ITS AVERAGE.
     This applies to any statistic you can keep about
     lottery numbers and lottery sets - such as evens and
     odds, the sum of the numbers, the spread, 1st number
     etc. This is important because if any statistic is at
     a record level of going against its average, chances 
     are that statistic will swing the other way.
         As a follow up, if I had been on the planet MARS
     for a year, and had just gotten back and was now about
     to play my first lotto game in that time, the most 
     important things I would need to know and in the order
     of importance:

     A) What numbers were drawn in the last drawing ?

     B) What are the trends of the following statistics
        for the last 10 drawings?

        I)   The first number (lowest number) drawn
       II)   The sums of the numbers
      III)   The spreads of the numbers
       IV)   Evens and odds
        V)   How many numbers have been drawn in each
               category (10's, 20's, 30's, etc.)     


  4) Never play the same set of numbers more that once -
     between 80% and 90% of all lottery drawings either
     have no winners or just 1 winner - it does you no
     good to have 2 winning tickets, when only 1 ticket
     was required to win - remember it only takes 1 ticket
     to win.

  5) Always check your tickets after buying them from the
     lottery retailer for mistakes, and always check "all"
     your tickets after the results are announced. Every
     year millions of tickets including million dollar
     jackpots go unclaimed, because someone miss-red the
     numbers, lost their tickets, or forgot to check every
     ticket. If you bought your ticket as a tourist, you can
     can look in publications like "USA TODAY" for results, or
     call one of several toll numbers (900) for prior
     results. Most states allow winning lottery tickets 
     to be claimed for	up to 180 days after the drawing.  
 
  6) Put your lottery tickets in a "safe" place and sign 
     the back if you have won - remember, any lottery 
     ticket is	like a "bearer" instrument - he who holds 
     the ticket claims the money.   

  7) Do not try to "forge" a lottery ticket by trying to 
     alter one of the numbers. All lottery tickets are
     logged into a central computer, and each ticket has
     a number of "check numbers" describing the retailer,
     time of day, and other info which gives a cross check
     to the validity of the ticket. Forging a ticket is a
     "felony", and anyone trying it is usually arrested on 
     the spot.
  
  8) If possible, play when the grand prize is greater
     than the odds of winning - in other words - when the
     reward is greater than the risk. For example, in the
     state of Florida I don't play the 6/49 lotto until
     the grand prize is greater than $ 14 million dollars. 
     I also don't play the Fantasy 5 game until it rolls
     over - which usually happens only twice a year.

  9) Learn all you can by reading books and publications.

 10) Remember, most of the proceeds of lotteries go
      to state goverments which fund education and other
      budgeted services. If you can't win, you can at 
      least be helping the services in your state.