Photo credit: Jeremy Brooks via Foter.com / CC BY-NC

Many of us view our birthday as a lucky day. Some take it even farther and play birthdays to win big in the lottery!

• A North Carolina man played his family’s birthdays to pick all five numbers and win $246,279 from a $1 ticket. “I’d used those numbers for a while and was about to pick some new ones,” Svedek said in the news coverage. “I’m so glad I didn’t. This feels really good.”
• A Virginia woman won $100,000 when playing family birthdays on Powerball. She thought she’d only won $50K, but since she spent the extra dollar for Power Play her prize doubled and, according to her daughter, “she just about had a hard attack.”

Turns out, though, this isn’t actually the best way to pick lottery numbers. Sure, the numbers are easy to remember, but lottotutor.com — yes, there is such a site — suggests playing “birth dates starts you out on a disadvantaged path.”

You are, after all, limited to the numbers 1 to 31. Plus, if you do win, there’s a “higher probability of a diminished return by sharing that prize pool…because so many other lotto players also use their birthday numbers.”

Of course another way to incorporate a birthday with the lottery is to buy the tickets as a gift. A 19-year-old received two Illinois scratch off tickets from her Dad on her birthday and won $4 million! (Guess her Dad’s feeling pretty set on birthday presents for his daughter for years to come).

Nevertheless, as I wrap up this blog, I can imagine my logic professor brother rolling his eyes at me for even remotely endorsing the lottery. So, I’ll remind you that your odds for winning the lottery are slim — whether you play birthdays or not.