How Players Pick Their Lucky Numbers — Random Choice or Ritual?

How Players Pick Their Lucky Numbers — Random Choice or Ritual?
Alicia Butler
Written by:
Alicia Butler
Andrew McDermott
Fact checked by:
Andrew McDermott
🗓
Updated: July 6th 2025

Players can be very particular about how they pick their lottery numbers. Most people opt for quick picks or allow the computer to generate random numbers for them.

Yet, some players are downright ritualistic about how they choose their lottery numbers. Instead of letting “chance” dictate their numbers, these players choose birthdays, lucky numbers, and other special numbers each time they play the lottery.

No matter how you choose your lottery numbers, the odds aren’t really in your favor. You have a 1 in 292,201,338 chance of winning a Powerball Lottery. Your best bet to win the lottery is to play every day – and even then, your chances of winning aren’t high.

Let’s look at the most common ways players choose lottery numbers and the strange rituals they use to do so.

Benefits of Picking Lucky Lottery Numbers Randomly

Some people swear by picking their lottery numbers by hand. Yet, most people opt for “quick picks” or random numbers chosen by the computer system when the ticket is purchased.

No matter whether you’re a die-hard believer in choosing your own numbers or hold steadfast in your own ritual of allowing the computer to choose your numbers, you can’t argue with some of the benefits of randomly picked lottery numbers.

The main benefit? It's quite a bit faster to allow the system to choose your lottery numbers for you. There’s no need to recite numbers to the teller or fill out a form. Just ask for your lottery ticket, pay, and the machine will spit out a ticket with your numbers.

Some players also prefer to pick numbers randomly or allow the computer to do it for them because it leaves everything up to chance. They believe that the “right” numbers will miraculously happen or if they’re meant to win, the computers will choose the winning numbers.

Benefits of Using Ritual to Pick Lotto Numbers

That being said, there are a lot of lottery players who would never allow a machine to randomly generate their magic numbers. These people always pick their own lottery numbers; sometimes they do this through ritual and other times they choose the same numbers over and over.

People who choose their own lottery numbers often choose numbers they feel connected to. Be them birthdays, holidays, lucky numbers, or special number sequences.

These are the people who prefer ritual over happenstance.

Does choosing your own lotto numbers make you more likely to win? Definitely not. Since more quick picks win than chosen numbers, you’re actually less likely to win with this method.

But if you do win? You’ll feel more connected to your numbers, feel even luckier if you win, and feel as though you have some control over the situation – as though you choose your own luck!

Which Method Is Better? Random Choice or Ritual?

The bottom line is that neither method is better or worse. Some people prefer to pick their own lotto numbers while others allow the lottery number generator to choose for them.

More winning tickets are quick picks, yet that’s simply because more players opt for quick picks over hand-picked numbers.

At the end of the day, you simply need to choose the method you feel most comfortable with.

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Alicia Butler

Alicia is OddsSeeker's Lead Editor & Fact Checker! She's been reviewing online casinos, sportsbooks, and other gaming since 2021, but has well over a decade of experience writing and editing for some of the largest online magazines and brands since 2011! Over her career, Alicia has worked as a travel and entertainment writer & editor contributing to widely read digital publications such as The Spruce, The Balance and The Spruce Pets, VeryWell, and TripSavvy. Alicia makes sure our readers can trust every word - holding both our team & our gaming operator partners to the highest standard to ensure that our readers always have the best possible experiences playing gaming online! Beyond OddsSeeker, Alicia is a marketing expert, entrepreneur, and avid traveler based in Connecticut!

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