The internet is a wonderful thing. You can now do all sorts of things from the comfort of your own home when you used to have to go to a shop or put something in the post.

I now rent my DVDs online and they arrive through the post and I get my weekly groceries delivered to my door having ordered them from my list of favorites online.

The internet makes things convenient. So when I forgot to buy my lottery ticket again and missed out on a small prize, I turned to the internet for help. I was surprised at what I found!

There was as I expected the ability to purchase lottery tickets online from the UK's National Lottery website. Great! No longer did I have to fiddle around with cash or get soaked in the rain going to the shop.

In fact they take care of it alltake the money from your bank account for the subscriptions automatically so that you never miss a draw, check your numbers for you without fail and pay you any winnings!

Paying you your winnings probably doesn't sound like a big dealbut since the UK National Lottery began in 1994, unclaimed prizes have accumulated to more than '650 million [$1.17 billion]!

Checking that your numbers have won is probably the most useful service of allbecause if you don't claim it you don't get it!

A great service - convenient, simple and fun.

Then a few months ago I found the next step onan online lottery syndicate system!

Sure - the official national lottery website offers a syndicate management tool - but not like this one.

I looked at it rather sceptically as anyone with an economics degree might! But I went through the numbers to check anyway. I was impressed.

They operate syndicates with 49 members in each. Then they do something cleverthey fix one of the six numbers so that each of the 49 numbers is covered and then with 5 other randomly generated numbers they create 44 separate lines.

This is cleverit means that there are 44 entries and effectively the syndicate only has to match 5 of the 6 lottery draw numbers to win the jackpot - because the sixth ball will always match.

But it's cleverer than that because the syndicate also wins more than the jackpotanother of the 44 lines will win 5 plus the bonus ball and then of course the other 42 lines also win by matching 5 numbers! Add all those multiple wins together and divide by the number in the syndicate and you win more than you would have done if you played solo!

In fact your odds of winning increases by 702% in the UK National Lottery Lotto draw!

And they have done the same trick with the EuroMillions draw. If you are not familiar with this it is as big as many of the multi-state lotteries in the USA. Why? Because 9 countries in Europe are all playing it! And more want to join in!

It is the biggest tax-free lump-sum national lottery in the world! If you were watching the news earlier in 2006 you will have seen that it rose to an incredible '125m rollover (yesthat's in GBP not dollars or euros!)

Being a part on this lottery syndicate increases your chances of winning by a staggering 3600%! Increasing the odds of winning any prize to 1 in 10 and it means you can win a prize by matching just one ball!

So next time you are waiting in line to buy your lottery ticket, running the risk of losing it, or forgetting to check whether you've won, think about how the internet can make it simpler for you.

If you join the right syndicate, it could boost your chances of winning as well!

Copyright 2006 Andy Gray