How would you like to win the Lottery? Like, Doh! But strangely enough, according to a highly respected boffin, there may actually be a mathematically viable way to win the Lotto without breaking any of the rules of physics that normally render it a once-in-2-thousand-lifetime possibility (playing once a week, you'd be due a win sometime in the next quarter of a million years!!).

Predicting the future is, of course, impossible. For that simple reason, crystal balls, tarot cards, tea leaves, i-ching or 'out-of-body' experiences won't put you in the winner's enclosure. Nevertheless, hitting the 14 million to 1 jackpot in the Lottery may really be possible - if you have a large amount of cash and are willing to do some research.

Nutty Professor and Maths Wiz Bill Hartston has come up with a provable model showing that if you buy 100,000 tickets on each and every rollover you stand a good chance of making a "fair profit". Like many others, Hartston doesn't like the idea of splitting any winnings with others, and says "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."

The basics of the strategy involve using a 'wheeling system' to cover a million or so combinations and bet on all of them whenever it's a rollover draw (a draw when no lottery winner was identified in the previous draw). According to the pencil-chewing Prof, you can then expect one major unshared jackpot about every 14 times goes. As rollovers happen roughly once every 12 draws, that means a big win roughly every 2 years.

Doc Hartston may not actually be a fan of the Lotto, seeing as he has said this "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. You'd do better if you place your money on the horses".