Where would $149.4 million Minnesota Powerball winner Paul White be if he didn't believe in winning odds? Photo

The news media... tv, newspapers, news sites... are fond of showing the low odds of winning in any major lottery. They do it because it's attention-seeking and good for their readership.

They normally drag in some unsuspecting mathematician and ask them to tell the worst scenario.

But they all have it completely wrong.

For example, the old chances for the US Powerball jackpot, before they upped it in October 2015 - was 1 in 175 million.

That's about the same chance as if you were to look out your window right now and see a flying pig. It's really that unlikely.

But hold on...

Go way down the scale, and the chance of getting a $4 power ball prize is 1 in 55.

Surely that means if you buy 55 tickets you'll win $4?

Maybe. The dumb numbers can't tell the difference - they're just looking for any prize when they roll out of the barrel.

So you could get either amount, big or small.

To beat the odds, you have to put two actions into place:

First: Use the Silver Lotto System to bring even those 1 in 55 chances down to possibly 1 in 2. That's what I get. In a recent Saturday draw I received 22 winning tickets. That's for a game meant to have a 1 in 3,838,380 chance of a win!

Second: Target the right time to play with LottoPredict. If you play more than once a week - like the 44% of readers in one of our Lotto Life blog polls - you probably noticed that one game was a closer match to your Silver Lotto numbers than the other.

When do you play? You need to use LottoPredict to find the pattern. It tells you what game has the best match.

You simply can't be a serious player without this essential $6.60/month tool.