The lottery is a game that only takes five minutes to master, but a lifetime (and a ridiculous amount of luck) to win. It is mainly a game of chance, where one bets on a certain combination of numbers to win a big pool of money. There are at least 49 balls in every game, which makes it almost impossible to win, but there’s something about the lottery that keeps on bringing people back for more.

The rise of the online lottery has made the infectious game of lotto more accessible to people living anywhere on the planet. Here are some of the most popular online lotteries to date:

Powerball – The winning combination is established by drawing 5 white balls out of a pool of 59, and 1 red ball out of a group of 35. Powerball is drawn every Wednesday and Saturday.

SuperLotto – The SuperLotto is similar to Powerball, with 5 numbers taken out of 47 balls and 1 number, the Mega number, taken out of a separate group of 27. In California, SuperLotto is also drawn every Wednesday and Saturday.

Mega Millions – Mega Millions follows another variation of the tried-and-tested Powerball formula: 5 balls out of 75 and 1 Mega Ball number out of 15. The chosen numbers can be played more than once, and the draws happen every Tuesday and Friday nights for the North Carolina variety of the game.

It is normal to hope for the best when playing the lottery. You may play the same combination for months at a time with no lucky break while others win the draw of the week on their first time. You then ask yourself, “Is there something I’m doing wrong?” Remember that the lottery is a game of chance, but you should take note of your combination and see how you can do better in other draws.

If a winning combination has been drawn and you didn’t get it, you should refrain from betting on those numbers ever again. Some experts say the chances of drawing that combination for a second time may come once in over 1.6 million years. Additionally, you shouldn’t be picking five consecutive number groupings – there’s less than one percent of that occurrence ever happing and even four consecutive numbers have never turned up.

Spread out your numbers by never choosing them all in a single array – like anything in the 20s, for example. In that same respect, avoid a combination of one to five, because the odds of them appearing are infinitesimally impossible. Do not put in combinations with the same last digits; the odds of winning are less than 0.04%.

These are but a few tips to accurately playing lotto. If you don’t get the winning combination, maybe Lady Luck just isn’t on your side, but there’s always a next time.