This is, for me, one of the most uncomfortable questions that I have had to deal with. Why? Because the truth is, I’m not quite sure what the answer is.
 
   My first reaction to being asked is the following: 

   “No, there’s no way you’ll be able to win the lottery with the “Fortune Smiling” system, or with any other, for that matter. If that is what mainly interests you – winning big in the lottery – forget it. It’s a waste of time and money!” 

   However, things might not be quite that simple. Let’s examine this issue a bit more deeply. 

   A couple of years ago, my brother asked me when he would have a “good day” for playing the lottery. I’m not sure which type of game he played, but I remember that it was not the “6 out of 49 numbers” sort, but rather, a game that gave you better odds of winning at least something.  Using the techniques I was exploring at the time, I picked out a day for him. He played for $1 on that day, and won $100. Of course, he was delighted. I, on the other hand, felt that it could well have been coincidence. After all, I had given him three good days to play, and he only won on one of them. True, what he won on that one day more than equaled the money he had gambled. So maybe playing on one of the “right days” wasn’t such a bad idea. 

   My thinking in such a matter may surprise you: how can an astrologer who thinks that it is indeed possible to improve your luck by investing or playing at the right times be so skeptical when an example of success shows up? 

   Well, it has to do with the nature of lotteries, and the odds they offer. In the following example, I’m going to use the internationally popular “6 out of 49 numbers” game to illustrate my thinking. 

   The probability that you will happen to pick the six winning numbers in this game is 1 in 13,983,816, or 0.00000007151%. (In the rest of this article, I’ll round that figure off to 1 in 14 million, for greater simplicity.) 

   Compare that to the odds at a single-zero roulette table: 48.6%. Of course, if you win a spin of the roulette wheel, you double your bet; if you win the lottery, you convert 1 or 2 dollars into hundreds of thousands, or even millions. Nonetheless, the probability that this will happen is so slight that many would conclude that it isn’t worth playing at all. 

   But can’t astrology improve our odds here? Perhaps, but don’t rejoice just yet. 

   Let’s assume that with the advanced techniques incorporated into the “Fortune Smiling” Financial Graph, you can indeed see your lucky times. Let’s further assume (for the sake of argumentation I will assign arbitrary factors to “luck” here) that on the days indicated as “good” on your calendar, you will be 10 times luckier than on an average day. You decide to play the lottery on that day, of course… 

   After all, you will be “10 times luckier”. Yet if we combine this factor with the probability of winning big, what do we get? Now, instead of your chance being 1 in 14 million, it’s 10 times better: 10 in 14 million, or 1 in 1.4 million. Not very encouraging odds, are they? 

   Now let’s suppose that your “Fortune Smiling” Financial Graph Report shows you a really fantastic day, one that is even 100 times luckier than the average day. (In fact, astrology is not able to say ”just how much luckier” a day will be; I am only giving these figures as theoretical examples to make my point.) 

   One hundred times luckier seems fantastic good. doesn’t it? But when combined with what we know, we see that now, our probability of walking away with millions of dollars through the lottery is, instead of 1 in 14 million, 100 in 14 million, or 1 in 140,000. Also not very likely! 

   To put it as clearly as possible: while I do believe that astrology can predict when you will be luckier that normal, the odds in the lottery are stacked so steeply against you that even on the luckiest day of your life you almost certainly won’t win. 

   OK, I can hear some of you now: “How can you say that? After all, somebody usually wins, so it could be me.” 

   True, but keep in mind that since hundreds of thousands, or even millions of people play, the chances are that somebody will hit the jackpot, if not this week, then the next, or the following. But for that person to be you, you’d need a degree of luck that most people simply will never have in their lifetime. 

   Thus speaks David Bolton, the born skeptic (for that I am, despite the fact that I am astrologer!). 

   Now, listen to David Bolton, the realist: 

   True, I certainly cannot count on my “Fortune Smiling” Financial Graph Report to win me the lottery. On the other hand, I have seen that astrology can predict, with a reasonable degree of reliability, when I will be luckier than average. 

   Therefore, if I do plan to play the lottery, I’m going to do so on one of those lucky days. I might not win, but I feel my chances will be better than average, and that is something, after all. Who knows, I might not get the big prize, but I could get 3 or 4 numbers right, and that would mean a small win.

  To be sure, it’s hard even to get 3 or 4 numbers out of 6; once again, the odds aren’t good (1 in 55.7 for getting 3 numbers right; 1 in 1,031 for getting 4 right numbers). 

  Now, if I wanted to be truly, and most coldly, realistic, I would do this:

  Suppose I play the lottery once a week, and the ticket costs me 1 euro.

   That’s 52 euros that I “invest” in a year. However, wanting to improve my chances, I decide not to bet 1 euro each week throughout the year, but to play only once a year, and select 52 combinations of numbers.

   In addition, I take the astrological factor into account:

   I select the day of the year which, according to my “Fortune Smiling” Finance Graph, is one of those exceptionally lucky days, thereby increasing the chances of winning even further.

   Will this assure me a win? Of course not, but I do think that by playing in such a way, your chances will be much better . Nonetheless, due to the extremely bad odds the game gives you in the first place, it is still far from “probable” that you will win. 

   And naturally, this method has another weakness, at least for most people:

   The average person, when purchasing a lottery ticket, is in fact buying “hope”: hope that he will soon be a millionaire, and his whole life will change for the better. We like to have this hope every week, not just one day a year. If we lose one week, we simply say “Oh well, maybe next week”. But waiting an entire year for hope to resurface is a trifle depressing, isn’t’ it?

   Conclusion: do not count on the “Fortune Smiling” Predictive Graphs to win you the lottery; you’d be much better off using your lucky days to achieve more realistic goals (Forex, day trading, casino gambling) that give you better odds, either for making a profit, or simply for having a good time with your friends or family!

   Yet if you do feel that it would be best to play the lottery on the “lucky” days (after all, there is not just one lucky day a year: you can always choose the 20 or 25 days that seem best, and play then), then the “Fortune Smiling” Financial Graph may well give you a slight boost in probability: but as I’ve said, due to the tremendous odds against you, don’t expect to win big any time soon!

Next article: Beating the odds: is it possible?