BY BOB HOLT

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

The odds of winning tonight’s $363 million Mega Millions lottery jackpot are about 1 in 175 million. But someone is going to have to win this thing eventually, and whoever finally does is thinking they don’t have a prayer to win either right now. Just like most of us.

A lot of players use their own strategies to pick numbers. Richard Lustig of Florida spent a lot of time studying how to win. Lustig won his first lottery prize of $10,000 in 1992. He has won six other times since.

According to ABC News, Lustig’s biggest win was for $842,000 in 2002. He even wrote a 40-page book, "Learn How to Increase Your Chances of Winning the Lottery," describing his strategy.

Some of Lustig’s ideas include, according to Yahoo! News, choosing your own numbers as opposed to letting the machine pick them for you, doing research to be sure your chosen numbers have not been drawn before, committing to your numbers, and not overspending.

Gail Howard, who wrote "Lottery Master Guide," suggests mixing up your numbers, avoiding picking all odd or all even numbers, and not playing patterns or diagonals on your lottery card.

Howard recommends playing games with lower odds, saying to the New York Daily News, “It's easier to win $100,000 in Take 5(played in New York) than in Powerball and Mega Millions, because the odds are one in half a million, instead of one in tens of millions."

Lottery.com says to play the games with the lower number of balls in their selection pool, or games played with the lower number of balls, like Jersey Cash 5. They also advise players to select their own numbers.

And considering recent news, it’s always wise to get the terms of any office lottery pools put in writing.