Plenty of players have a ritual: the kids' birthdays, an anniversary, a number they've played for years, or the "lucky numbers" a horoscope app hands out each week. There's nothing wrong with any of that. It just helps to know what those habits can and can't do.
Are some lottery numbers luckier than others?
No. Powerball and Mega Millions are drawn with balls from machines, and a ball has no memory of past draws and no preference for anyone's birthday. Every valid combination has the same chance. Your Powerball ticket has a 1 in 292,201,338 chance at the jackpot whichever numbers you play, and a Mega Millions ticket has 1 in 290,472,336. A ticket reading 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 is exactly as likely to win as one that looks random, even though it doesn't feel that way.
"Lucky" numbers often get confused with numbers that have come up most often. Those are different things. Our game pages show which numbers have been drawn most and least over a game's last 50 draws, and most common lottery numbers looks at the longer record. Neither predicts the next draw, for reasons covered in hot, cold and due numbers.
Does a lottery horoscope or zodiac number give you an edge?
No. A lottery horoscope is entertainment. The numbers attached to your star sign have no connection to which balls come out of the machine, so a Leo's six numbers are exactly as likely as a Capricorn's, or anyone else's. The same goes for lucky charms, lucky stores and lucky days of the week. Enjoy them if they make the game more fun; just don't expect them to move the odds.
Be more careful with anything you're asked to pay for. A system, app or "AI" that claims to predict winning numbers can't, and some are scams. See can AI or ChatGPT predict the lottery?
Why does picking numbers above 31 matter?
Because calendars stop at 31. A ticket built only from birthdays and anniversaries can only use the numbers 1 to 31, and many players build tickets that way.
That small range covers a small slice of the possible tickets. In Powerball the white balls run from 1 to 69, and only about 1.5% of all possible five-number sets use nothing higher than 31 (169,911 out of 11,238,513). In Mega Millions, whose white balls run from 1 to 70, the share is about 1.4%. If a lot of players crowd into that 1.5%, those combinations are played far more often than the average combination.
That doesn't change your chance of winning. It changes the payout if you do win, because a jackpot is split equally among everyone holding the winning combination. A crowded combination is more likely to have company. Lotteries don't publish how often each combination is played, so the size of the effect for any particular ticket isn't known; the direction is the point.
So if you want to play birthdays, mixing in one or two numbers above 31 keeps the meaning and makes your ticket a little less ordinary.
Do Quick Picks have better odds than birthday numbers?
No. A Quick Pick and a set you choose have identical odds. The practical difference is that a Quick Pick draws from the whole number range at random, so it isn't biased toward 1 to 31 the way a ticket of dates is. If you choose your own numbers and want to avoid sharing, steer clear of obvious patterns too: straight lines on the playslip, runs like 1-2-3-4-5, and combinations circulating on social media. Quick Picks vs picking your own numbers goes further.
None of this raises your odds. It only affects how a prize would be divided.
What does change what you'd take home?
The game you play, the price and tax. Powerball is $2 a play and is drawn Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 p.m. Eastern. Mega Millions is $5 a play with a multiplier included, drawn Tuesday and Friday at 11 p.m. Eastern. Powerball vs Mega Millions compares them side by side.
On a big prize, tax matters more than anything on the ticket. Under the IRS Form W-2G rules, the lottery withholds 24% federal tax when the winnings minus the wager exceed $5,000, but a jackpot winner's top rate is 37%, so more is usually due at filing. Non-resident aliens generally face 30% instead. The details are in the federal and state lottery tax breakdown.
Lucky number questions
Are some lottery numbers luckier than others?
No. In a fair drawing every combination has the same chance: 1 in 292,201,338 for the Powerball jackpot and 1 in 290,472,336 for Mega Millions. No number, birthday or star sign makes a win more likely.
Do lottery horoscopes improve your chances of winning?
No. Horoscope numbers have no connection to how the balls are drawn, so they leave your odds exactly where they were.
Why should you pick lottery numbers above 31?
Birthdays and dates only go up to 31, and many players use them. Adding numbers above 31 doesn't raise your chance of winning, but it makes your combination less likely to be shared if it does win.
Are birthday numbers a bad way to play the lottery?
They don't hurt your odds. Their only drawback is that birthday-only tickets sit in a crowded range, so a winning birthday combination is more likely to be split among several winners.
Do Quick Picks or lucky numbers have better odds?
Neither. Quick Picks and self-chosen numbers have identical odds. Quick Picks just use the full number range, so they avoid the birthday cluster.
Play for fun and set a budget. If gambling stops being fun, the national helpline is 1-800-MY-RESET.
Sources: Powerball prize chart; Mega Millions how to play; IRS Form W-2G instructions. Combination counts are our own arithmetic.
