Which Is Better: Easy Pick or Play Slip?

A woman on Facebook just raised a question we hear a lot: What's the best option when it comes to playing lotto games like Powerball® and Mega Millions® - easy pick or play slip? I think the bottom-line thing people want to know is whether one of the options will give them a better chance of winning.

The short answer is that it doesn't matter - every play in our games has the same fair shot at a prize, but some additional background will help spell it out.

In our lotto games, you have the option of choosing your own numbers or letting the computer generate plays for you. To choose your own numbers, you can mark them on a play slip or ask the clerk to key in the numbers you want. To let the computer generate numbers for you in an easy pick play, just tell the clerk you want an easy pick or mark "easy pick" on a play slip.

Either way, the set of numbers you end up with will have the same chance of winning as any other play in the game. There isn't one set of odds for easy picks and another set for the numbers you choose yourself. The odds of winning are exactly the same for each ticket sold in the game.

There is a difference, however, in the volume of the two types of plays being made. About 70 percent to 80 percent of the tickets purchased in lotto games are easy picks. It stands to reason then, that about 70 percent to 80 percent of the winners would be from easy-pick plays, and that is the case.

It doesn’t mean that easy-picks have better odds of winning, it just means that people are making more of them.

Comments

[Faye Dudley]

Easy pick