Everyone daydreams of winning the Lottery big-time - how we would spend the money, which of our own worries it would solve, how it can best be used to help our family or favorite good cause? In other words, how we could use it more efficiently than those people you read about, who win and waste it

We devise, or even pay for, Top Lottery Tips. Some even look for a mathematical formula to improve our chances of winning the lottery.

Here's a brief run-down of some of the tips I've collected over my years of playing, and collecting winnings, from several Lotteries: the UK Lotto, EuroMillions, the Spanish Lottery and the Florida Lottery - because some USA residents are not allowed by law to enter the Lottery, so what alternatives are available for them?

First: number patterns 1,2,3,4,5,6 at the most basic, or for something a little less obvious you might try the seven times table. Seven's a 'lucky' number, and the system involves a little maths. That must be worth a try: 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42 and 49 - and it conveniently ends on 49, the highest number in the UK Lotto.

Unfortunately, however good this feels, no single number selection is any more or less likely to be succesful than any other. Even if your pattern does happen to win, if it's a common one – such as 1,2,3,4,5,6 you're going to be sharing your prize with the masses who chose the same number pattern as you.

A second system is picking family birthdays, but what about the numbers 32 to 49? And although you're less likely to be sharing your prize, you still haven't overcome the problem that your numbers are seriously unlikely to win.

As a third alternative, check out online, where you'll find no end of formulae, systems and books all claiming to increase your chances of winning. So can everyone else.

However attractive the number patterns and formulae sound, the sad truth is, in order to increase our chances of winning, more tickets have to be purchased – so the only way is to buy more tickets! At its simplest, when you buy two tickets you have just doubled your chances of winning. Naturally, your costs have also doubled, and your losses if you don't win.

A more efficient approach to buying more tickets is to join a Lottery syndicate or a Lottery Club. The new Club approach will overcome the difficulty faced by folk living in the USA, in states without a Lottery. The club buys your tickets, groups you with various other members and the winnings are pooled and shared out.

There are many syndicates available online, widening your choices, or you could run your own. Which is the best approach?

Some people worry about online firms being dishonest and not paying out, so preferring the hard work of running their own syndicate to minimize the risk. Although this should in reality be common sense, the following true story highlights how easily greed can overcome loyalty to your fellow syndicate members.

A friend, Jon, joined a work syndicate run by, let's call him Fred. One day Fred, normally a reliable and popular co-worker, just didn't turn up for work. He didn't return any phone calls and at first it was assumed he had a bad cold and would soon be back. It was so uncharacteristic of Fred that his employers were concerned for his well-being, and after a few days sent someone to his home address.

What they found was amazing - his whole house was unoccupied and neighbors had no forwarding address.

At first his work colleagues couldn't understand this; Fred seemed a model employee with no worries and no reason to act in such a way. Then they decided to check their work syndicate Lottery numbers, and discovered a short while ago their numbers had come up, and they had indeed scooped the jackpot. The prize had been collected by the winning ticket holder, Fred, who requesting zero publicity, quietly planned his departure and disappeared, without trace, never to be heard from again.

After hearing this story from one of the "might-have-been" syndicate winners, you can imagine that I'd recommend trusting a well-established company, making a profit from running the syndicate which subsequently has a successful business reputation to lose, as opposed to rather trusting one person, however well you think you know them.

And of course there are the stories you read in the papers where the numbers won, but the syndicate manager had forgotten to buy the usual tickets, lost them - or had even been pocketing members' weekly dues because a jackpot win was so unlikely.

After those stories (and I promise that the Fred story is completely true) I come down in favor of using a professionally managed and well-established business, rather than trusting any one person to take the responsibility of managing the syndicate or club and to act honorably with the winnings.

So my top tip to win more on the lottery is to have shares in more entries by joining a Lottery Club or Syndicate, but do choose carefully.