Recently Kevin Halstead from Lancashire won £2.3 million on the

UK lottery draw

.He was not overwhelmed however and decided to continue in his job, driving the bushe has been driving for the last seventeen years. “I don’t want to pack my job in. Iasked my boss for time off, a month maybe two, but I don’t want to cut myself off from my friends and I really enjoy my job,” Kevin said. He is happy with his car butwill buy a pony for his daughter and is thinking of moving house.We all read stories like this but what are the chances of winning the

British NationalLottery

?In truth you are more likely to be struck by lightning, the odds of which are 1 in 2.32million. Winning the jackpot in the lottery are in fact 1 in 13 983 816, which is aboutthe same as becoming an astronaut! A mathematician, Bill Hartson, worked out that a player who could purchase £100 000 of tickets whenever the jackpot was in a rollover situation would reduce the chances of winning to 1 in 14 and produce a profit.Every week around one million people win prizes on the

UK lottery draw

so there ismore money to be received than just the jackpot. Of course to win the top prize youhave to match all six numbers drawn (from 1 to 49) but prizes can be won with aslittle as three numbers matched. The money available ranges from £10 to arespectable £100 000 and the odds of winning vary from 1 in 2.3 million to around 1in 54.One in four jackpots tend to be won by syndicates. This is a much more efficient wayto play the

British National Lottery

as the money won by one syndicate member isshared by the whole group. The result is all members have a much better chance of winning something.Ways of improving the chances in the

UK lottery draw

are regularly advertised butmaybe the most appealing is the Elottery programme. The advantages aremathematical of course and a member gets forty-four entries into the two weeklydraws for five pounds a week. Syndicates contain forty-nine players and each player selects only five numbers to place in the draw. These are entered forty-four times intothe

British National Lottery

and the sixth number is added from the remaining forty-four numbers in turn. The chances of winning a prize in this way increase by 702% to1 in 13.