NetLotto Version 2.4 is currently under development and should be released in about 2 weeks' time. It will include support for 3 ball lottery games (so that we will now have full coverage from 3 ball right through to 7 ball games.) The games statistics will be improved by reporting draw frequency for bonus balls separately from main balls. And we have come to an arrangement with the Canadian lottery to include all their games, including the provincial ones, together with their past results.

Learn more about NetLotto here.

Please have a look at my new NetLotto Weblog at http://netlotto.blogspot.com.

A week from Wednesday, California will become the 12th and largest state to join Mega Millions. The Golden State's entry means the country could soon see - for the first time - a half-billion-dollar lottery ticket. "California adds over 35 million people in population and creates what we think is the ability for much larger jackpots, growing at a much faster rate," said Buddy Roogow, Mega Millions president. "This is a big deal." Mega Millions is poised to blow away the record of $314.9 million for a single lottery ticket winner, set in 2002.

About once a week, someone, somewhere in the world, sends me a copy of an email they've received, telling them they've won a large sum of money, and asking me if it's legit. Sometimes they're NetLotto users, but mostly they're just people who've picked up my name as a lottery expert while surfing the Net. Here's an example:

NETHERLANDS INTERNATIONAL LOTTO PROMO WILBAUSTRAAT 122A 3073HL
AMSTERDAM THE-NETHERLANDS
www.lotto.nl
13-05-05

Dear Winner,
RE: FINAL WINNING NOTIFICATION
We are pleased to inform you of the result of the Lottery Winners International programs held on the 6th May 2005 . Your e-mail address attached to ticket number 76-99823418 with reference number 091-768289 drew winning numbers 03,09,22,38,49,55 and credited to batch number 323 BSB, which consequently won in the 3rd category. You have therefore been approved for a pay out of 550,000.000 (Five Hundred and Fifty Thousand Euros). CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Your funds are now deposited and insured with a security firm to be transferred into your nominated bank account either by means of wire transfer or by whatever suitable means. Due to mix up of some numbers and names, we ask that you keep your winning information very confidential till your claim has been processed and your prize/money Remitted to you.

This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claims and unwarranted abuse of this program by some participants.All participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from over 200,000 company and 500,000 individual email addresses and names from all over the world. This promotional program takes place annually. We hope with part of your winning you will take part in our next year 20 Million Euros International Lottery. To file for your claim, you will be contacting your fiducial agent,

Mr. GREG ANDREW
Tell: 0031-641-682-166
Email; gregandrew@mmail.com

This lottery is promoted and sponsored by software corporations and other private organisations to help individuals generate fortunes which would encourage them to expand their business frontiers and assist with humanitarian concerns. Please Note that winnings must be claimed not later than 2nd June 2005. After this date all unclaimed, funds will be included in the next stake coming up in 2006. Please note that in order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications remember to quote your reference number in all correspondence.

Furthermore, should there be any change of address do inform us as soon as possible.

Congratulations again from our organisation and thank you for being part of our promotional program.

N.B: Anybody under the age of 18 is automatically disqualified from this program.

Sincerely yours,
Sheila Williams
Management of Netherlands Lotto Promo 2005

It sounds fairly convincing, but if you are any good at grammar, you'll see that some of it is poorly expressed, with grammatical and punctuation mistakes which would not be made by a real lottery organization. But you don't have to worry about any of that. Here's the simple rule:

If you haven't entered it, you haven't won it and if you have entered it, you will NOT be advised of your winnings by email!!!

The other scam going around at the moment is telephone based. The con artist is very convincing, so beware. A New York woman lost $25,000. More next week.  

In 1567, Queen Elizabeth I established the first English state lottery, with prizes including cash, gold and silver plate, and tapestries. 400,000 tickets were offered for sale. In 1612, King James I of England created a lottery in London by royal decree. The proceeds helped to finance the first British colony in America at Jamestown, Virginia. Anglican churches held two of the three winning tickets in the first draw!

Consider this winning lottery sequence:

4,11,19,28,34,44

Another way of representing this sequence is by starting with the first ball, and then recording the difference between it and the next one, and so on. Note that we have already taken advantage of the fact that it doesn’t matter what order the balls are drawn in, so we have first rearranged them from the lowest to the highest. In this way, we avoid negative numbers.

Our number sequence becomes:

4,7,8,9,6,10

If we had selected those numbers, it would be just as good as selecting the winning sequence, because the second sequence is readily converted back to the first:
4
4 + 7 = 11
11 + 8 = 19
19 + 9 = 28
28 + 6 = 34
34 + 10 = 44

In other words, instead of having to pick 6 numbers out of 49, we would only have to pick 6 numbers out of 10! How much easier is that?

Does this really work? More in the next issue.

KEEP YOUR GAMES HISTORY UP TO DATE: If you're a NetLotto package owner, you'll want to keep your games history up to date. To get the latest results, click on the link download past results and follow the instructions. This is a totally FREE service.

SUBSCRIPTIONS to Lottery Tips is free. Sign up on the NetLotto Web Site at http://www.netlotto.org/subscribe.htm. Our privacy policy is simple. Under NO circumstances will we share subscribers' email addresses with any third party. We actively discourage spam.

FORWARDING of this Newsletter to friends and colleagues IS allowed.

To UNSUBSCRIBE, send any message (no text or subject is required) to unsubscribe@netlotto.org.

PLEASE note that you must email to help@netlotto.org if you want a personal response (or fill in a feedback form on the NetLotto Web Site.) Other email addresses, such as sales@netlotto.org and subscribe@netlotto.org are handled by software and Mark doesn't get to see them.

We would love to hear what you think of this issue of Lottery Tips. And of course, if you have any suggestions for upcoming issues that you'd like to share with us, please send those, too! Just e-mail me at help@netlotto.org