Lottery winning

What are the odds of you winning money in the lottery. Is it something like a million to one or do you have a better chance then that. Well if you look at it mathematically you may be able to improve your odds if you can take a certain amount of people over a period of time an be able to figure it out. Lottery does do a lot of good things for the communities but it would be great if people won a little more often but that is just the draw of the luck. It always seems as if the people in the east win more than people in the west or in the mountain area but maybe it just seems like it. What is the best way to play, should you do the deciding what numbers you want to use or should you let the machine do the drawing of numbers. If you use the same numbers for a long time will you finally win something, does that improve your chances or not? Do you know some people got into a store and buy $200.00 worth of those things and never even blink an eye. Its like it is an everyday thing to them. It would seem that you could use that money for something else like paying your bills or something but maybe those people do not have bills. When I buy a ticket it always seem as I do not even get one number to match what has been drawn.