Playing The Lottery? Have Some Chinese Food First

Do you feel lucky? Well? Do you?

Lottery fever has more people than ever buying MEGAMillions and Super Lotto tickets — grabbing quick picks and California Combos, all in hopes of winning the more than $540 million jackpot, the largest jackpot ever.

The MEGAMillions has failed to produce a jackpot winner in the past 18 drawings. The next drawing is Friday, March 30, at 8 p.m.

The odds of winning the lottery Friday are 1 in 175 million, according to Emory University professor Aaron Abrams, "which means you're more likely to die of a flesh-eating bacteria," than you are to win the lottery he told National Public Radio.

It seems like everyone's looking for an edge, whether it's a talisman, prayer, or a lucky number. As far as finding lucky numbers, getting lotto numbers from fortune cookies is one of the most common places to find lucky numbers.

"If you believe in the power of messages from fortune cookies there's no reason to ignore the numbers on the back if you're a lotto fan. If luck is simply the way of the universe rewarding you, why not deliver your good luck in a fortune cookie?" according to one website.

Customers at DJ's Chinese Food on Magnolia Avenue are hoping their meal comes with a lucky side dish. The fortune cookies there include a traditional saying and a series of "lucky" numbers.

Two Idaho men followed a fortune cookie to a $600,000 Powerball payday in 2008. Then there was the strange case in March 30, 2005, when 110 Powerball players scored five of six correct numbers — all based on fortune cookies. Officials suspected fraud at the time as most of the cookies came from the same Wonton Food's Long Island City factory, which churns out four million cookies a day.

"That's ours," Derrick Wong, of Wonton Food, told reporters when shown a picture of a winner's cookie slip. "That's very nice, 110 people won the lottery from the numbers."

The same number combinations go out in thousands of cookies a day. The workers put numbers in a bowl and pick them. "We are not going to do the bowl anymore; we are going to have a computer," Mr. Wong said. "It's more efficient."

Here's a sample of fortune cookie numbers that may — or may not — be lucky:

01-25-11-03-12-92

01-24-35-08-51-44

11-22-33-44-55-66

02-06-05-04-24-36

62-53-41-87-98-95

This article is meant for entertainment purposes only. Larkspur-Corte Madera Patch, its parent company and affiliates do not encourage or condone gambling.