40 WOMAN’S WORLD 8/29/16

1 Win sweepstakes!Tap the best sources!“The � rst step is to set up an e-mail address just for enter-ing sweepstakes,” suggests sweepstakes expert Carolyn Wilman. “This will keep your hobby separate from your personal and professional life and make it easy to keep track of contests. The sec-ond step is to visit sweepstakes aggregates—web sites that make your job easy by grouping legiti-mate giveaways all in one place. My favorite aggregator sites are SweepsAdvantage.com, SweepstakesFanatics.com and ContestGirl.com.” And follow your

favorite blogs and web sites like WinI t .WomansWor ld .com to � nd con-tests that match your interests!

Our experts share the easy tactics that’ll help put you on a lucky streak and boost your odds of winning big!

Carolyn Wilman—author of How to Win Cash, Cars, Trips & More! and You Can’t Win if You Don’t Enter—runs ContestQueen.com, where she gives tips on how to find, enter and win prizes from sweepstakes and contests.

Seven-time lottery grand prize winner Richard Lustig is the author of Learn How To Increase Your Chances of Winning the Lottery. Find more of his tips at WinningLotteryMethod.com.

Our expert panel—Kristina Mastrocola

“Help me win sweepstakes and lotteries!”

Photos: Flickr RF/Getty Images; istockphoto.com (2); Micro10x/Dreamstime.com.

Ask America’s Ultimate Experts

2 Boost your lottery odds!Stick with smaller lotteries!Smaller local lotteries equal better odds, because there are fewer people playing them, notes lottery winner Richard Lustig. “Powerball odds, for example, are one out of 292 million—those are impossible odds. But if you go to your local state lottery website—simply by doing an Internet search for your state and lottery—you’ll find smaller lotteries with, say, one in three million odds, or even better, one in 500,000 odds. If you play a lottery with a $100,000 or $500,000 jack-pot, you have a much better chance. Every local lottery site will tell you what the odds are for each game.”

Strategize in “winning circles”!“Think in concentric circles,” urges Wilman. “In other words, start with smaller contests and work outward to bigger ones. Sweepstakes only open to your city are going to have fewer entries than those open to the state or country, improving your odds of winning. I check the websites of all my local media on a weekly basis. I love winning tickets to movies, concerts and local sights! Another ‘trick’ is to start by entering One Entry Only sweep-stakes: They’re the quickest to enter and everyone has the same odds of winning!”

Go beyond the calendar!Playing meaningful digits like birth-days limits you to numbers one through 31—leaving out a range of numbers from 32 to 59, says Lustig. “If you’re not playing those higher numbers, you’re decreasing your odds. Play a few numbers outside the calendar range, so your picks cover the whole spectrum of pos-sibilities!” Also, “stick to the same numbers every time. Playing differ-ent numbers every time worsens your odds, but every time you lose with the same numbers, your odds of winning the next time improve.”

Be savvy on social media!Social media is now the place to enter and win by following your favorite brands, stores and blogs.

“But I see entrants mak-ing the same mistakes

over and over again,” says Wilman. For example, if you have a F a c e b o o k

account that you use for entering sweepstakes and have locked down the

privacy settings, sponsors can’t count your entry for the � nal draw-ing, which means you aren’t even in to win. Check your privacy set-tings to ensure contest sponsors can see your entries.”

Nix scratch tickets!“Scratch-offs are just

about the worst thing you can do!” declares lottery expert Dawn Nettles. That’s because scratch

tickets are printed out randomly and

sent all over your

Avoid lottery scams!Red � ags to look out for:Mail noti� cations: “Watch out for a letter or an e-mail telling you you’ve won,” says Lustig. “Never entered? It’s a scam!” Personal questions: “No lot-tery will ask you for your per-sonal information—address, Social Security number, etc.—over the phone,” he notes. Closing costs: “Often scam-mers call and say you’ve won 100 million dollars—all you have to do is send, say, $2,000 in ‘closing costs’ before they can send your winnings,” he says. “No lottery makes you send money!”

state. “Odds that a winning ticket will wind up in your town, let alone the store where you buy your tick-ets, are slim!” adds Lustig. “You’re much better off playing ball lotteries like Powerball.”

Dawn Nettles, a Dallas-area lottery watchdog, is an expert on the Texas lottery and has tracked the lottery for almost 30 years. Learn more at LottoReport.com.