Fourteen social club members from Ellesmere Port who play the UK Lotto as a lottery syndicate enjoyed a very wealthy Christmas after winning a jackpot worth £2,283,989 on Saturday 13 December, 2008.

A glitch in the system brought the lottery ticket system down at around 2pm on Saturday 27th december meaning players could not buy a lotto ticket for about four hours.  And even then, when the system went live again, it was extremely slow and prevented many players from buying their tickets.

A syndicate of ten Lotto players calling themselves the ‘Lucky Ten’ matched all six numbers in the draw on Wednesday 3 December to win a £1,093,846 share of the jackpot. This means that each syndicate member is £109,384 richer, and their Christmas celebrations are sure to be extra special this year.

If you work alongside more than a handful of colleagues in an office or factory, you could have a lot of fun starting a regular Lottery Sweepstakes every week or month. This could run at the same time as a regular lottery syndicate, but the sweepstakes would guarantee a handful of winners every time.

The tope 10 most frequent lottery numbers are - 38, 25, 44, 45, 28, 2, 9, 14, 47 and 43

The National Lottery is five years old. BBC News Online looks at tactics for winning, the dangers if you do win, the controversy over funding and the rollercoaster fortunes of operators Camelot.

Forget crystal ball gazing, tarot and tea leaves, hitting the jackpot in the National Lottery is possible - with a lot of money and bit of patience.

The chances of winning the jackpot with a £1 ticket are 14 million to one.

That means that if you spend £1 a week on the Lottery, you may just win the jackpot in 270,000 years time.

But by then Earth will probably be boiled to a frazzle by the sun and taking that holiday of a lifetime in the Caribbean will not hold so much appeal.

So forget your £1 ticket, think big - very big.

Mathematician Bill Hartston has worked out that an astute consortium buying £100,000 of tickets for every rollover could be in with a chance of making a “fair profit”.

Mr Hartston said: “The only way you can beat the odds is to bet against what other people are betting their money on.

“That way you will not have to share your money around.”

‘Tax on hope’

Pick a million or so such combinations and bet on all of them every time a rollover arrives.

You can then expect one major jackpot, unshared, every 14 times you enter, which, with rollovers about one every 12 draws, will be more than once every two years, with a bit of luck.

For the ordinary punter though, the lottery is a “tax on hope and innumeracy”.

So why do people bother?

Apparently, it’s all to do with “perceived utility” which means the more money you can win, the more likely you are to spend your £1 on a ticket.

It explains why contestants on ITV’s Who Wants to be a Millionaire often stop at £64,000. Unlike the Lottery, they have too much to lose.

And people also bother because it’s addictive.

lottery
Lucky number: 38
Mr Hartston said: “It’s pernicious because it’s so beautifully designed to be addictive. People are hooked because of the way they feel they came really close by getting two numbers one week.

“But if the first two are the same, you are more likely to have no numbers right in the four consecutive weeks than you are winning £10.”

If you must play, the latest advice is to stick with number 38.

It has popped up 74 times, more than any other number since the Lottery was launched almost five years ago.

The top ten numbers, in order of the times they have appeared, are: 38, 25, 44, 45, 28, 2, 9, 14, 47 and 43. The bottom ten numbers, in order of the fewest appearances, are: 39, 19, 13, 37, 16, 6, 18, 35, 21 and 34.

But a better bet is to place your money on the horses.

Mr Hartston said: “Everybody knows that the Lottery is a mug’s game. You buy a ticket for £1, of which only 50p is returned in prizes.

“Almost any other form of gambling will supply a better return on investment.”

A stuntman who has stood in for some of Hollywood’s hottest actors is celebrating after winning a National Lottery jackpot of £7,544,200 on Wednesday 10 December, 2008. Mark Lisbon, who is 42, credited his partner Jane Surtees for picking the numbers that won him the life-changing rollover prize.

Callie Rogers, who won a National Lottery jackpot worth £1.9 million when she was just 16 years old, was arrested on Wednesday 03 December, 2008 on suspicion of dealing cocaine. Callie, who is now 21 years old, was later released without charge, but a male who was also arrested in the same dawn raid has been charged with several counts of supplying cocaine.

National lottery jackpot winners come in all shapes and sizes, but what really separates lottery jackpot winners from the rest of us, and can we learn from those differences to improve our own chances? We’ve identified five winning lottery habits that you might like to consider adopting...

Stoke City Football Club fan John Livesley and his with Jackie are cheering themselves after matching all six main Lotto numbers on Saturday 15 November to win a jackpot worth £2,630,225. However, they almost didn’t win because they almost didn’t enter!