People spend upward of $100 billion on lottery tickets each year, making it the country’s most popular form of gambling. But lotteries don’t just make money for states; they also teach people to be greedy and aspire for instant wealth. This is a harmful lesson for a society that values social mobility and is increasingly dominated by economic inequality.

While the vast majority of lottery winners aren’t poor, many of those who play aspire to be rich, and some of them succeed. That’s a good thing, but the lure of a large jackpot can lead to big losses. One example: A woman bought a ticket on a lark during a big jackpot, and now she spends thousands of dollars every year on lottery tickets.

There’s no way to guarantee that you’ll win the lottery, but there are some tricks that can help. For example, picking random numbers will improve your chances, and it’s better to buy more tickets than less. The same is true of pools: If you pool with friends, your odds are improved.

Another important principle is to avoid numbers that repeat on the winning ticket, especially ones that end in the same digit. To do this, look for groups of “singletons,” or digits that appear only once on the ticket. It’s not uncommon for a group of singletons to signal a winning ticket. Charting the results of previous drawings can help you find a pattern. It’s important to remember that a true random draw will have each position appear about the same number of times.