Chances of winning the lottery if you play every day, in short
Digit by digit, "chances of winning the lottery if you play every day" depends on the play type. Pick 3 and pick 4 are daily number games: a player chooses three or four digits, each from 0 to 9, and a draw picks the winning digits, often twice a day. What is pick 4 lottery play compared with a big jackpot game? A small, fixed prize table instead of a rolling jackpot, much better odds, and a choice of how the digits must match. Everything else follows from there.
The pick 3 lottery odds are easy to count. There are a thousand possible results, so a straight play wins one time in a thousand. A box on three different digits covers six orders and wins about one time in a hundred and sixty seven, while a box with a repeated digit covers only three. The pick 3 lottery payout on a straight is typically around half of what fair odds would pay, and pick 4 lottery payout tables keep much the same share.
How does pick 3 lottery work on a ticket? The player writes three digits, chooses a play type and a stake, and the prize is fixed in advance for that play type. A straight play wins only if the digits come up in the exact order. A box play wins if the same digits come up in any order. A straight and box play splits the stake between both, and a combo buys every order as straight plays of its own.
Pick 3 and pick 4 draws are independent: yesterday's digits say nothing about today's. Charts of hot and cold digits, sums and pairs are popular, but each digit still has the same one in ten chance at every draw, and a straight play keeps its one in a thousand whatever came before. A play chosen at random and a play chosen after hours of study win equally often. What changes the result over time is only the play type and the number of tickets.
Common questions
What does a combo play cost?
A combo buys every order of the digits as separate straight plays, so it costs one stake per order.
What is a straight play?
A play that wins only when the drawn digits come in exactly the chosen order. It pays the most of any play type.
How big should pick game stakes be?
Small, whatever the play: every play type returns about half of what goes in over time.
What is a box play?
A play that wins on any order of the chosen digits. It wins more often than a straight play and pays less.