Strategies to win the lottery?

For things like scratch-offs, no, there aren’t any winning strategies. Those things are designed to let you win just enough money every once in a while to keep you playing, but they’re not a good way to put more money in your bank account in any kind of consistent way. For lotteries where you pick numbers (like Powerball), there are two schools of thought that might help you out. First, you can pick and play the same numbers every time. Many people think this will smooth out the distribution curve for your results so that you’re more likely to hit, although it’s totally up in the air whether that’s actually true or not. Then, some people suggest choosing numbers that aren’t particularly close to one another. There’s some precursory math theory that suggests this might help, but it’s kind of unclear. Realistically, the chances of winning the lottery aren't very good but maybe you’ll get lucky!

Nope, there aren't any tricks to winning the lottery. You can only increases your chances by buying more lottery tickets, but I'd say that's not a great investment because your chances of winning are awful. Some people who play the lottery recommend picking uncommon numbers (by avoiding "lucky" ones like 7 or 13, for example, and also by picking numbers above 31 since people like to use birthdays for their number), so that if you DO win, you at least up your chances of not having to split the jackpot with anybody.

I'll be the mean guy and say this—buying lottery tickets is a waste of money. Your chances of winning are astronomically slim and there are tons of other, better things that you could be doing with your money. Your odds of winning are literally one in hundreds of millions. You might get lucky but more likely you'll just spending money on false hope.