Can you improve your lottery odds?

This post comes from Stacy Johnson at partner site Money Talks News.

Reporters constantly get pitches from all manner of people and companies wanting to be the subject of a news story. They hire publicists who write press releases designed to convince people like us to tell their story and get them publicity -- and thus sell more books, apps or whatever they're hoping to market.

Over the last several months, I've received repeated pitches from a publicist promoting a guy who says he can increase your odds of winning the lottery. Here's part of a press release I got:

Richard (Lustig) will be playing Powerball Wednesday, and his chances to win are better than most. Why? Lustig has developed a method for increasing your chances of winning the lottery that has given him seven lottery game grand prizes and dozens of smaller wins, netting millions in winnings. Richard is outspoken that his method really works, and that "luck has nothing to do with it." 

Really? Check out the video below for what resulted when I talked to Richard Lustig and took his theories to a statistics professor.

I've been doing consumer news for more than 20 years, so silly stuff like systems to increase your odds of picking random numbers is nothing new. What's unusual about this story, however, is that this guy isn't promoting his product with a late-night infomercial. He's sending press releases like the one above to real journalists. Even stranger: They're biting.

In a story called "How one man became a serial lottery winner," ABC News has both print and video about Lustig. They say things like:

After developing the method over the years and selling thousands of copies of his report, Lustig decided to write a 40-page book explaining his formula. The game of chance, or what some call luck, is what Lustig addresses in his book currently ranked No. 3 on Amazon's self-help book list.

But did anyone in this network news organization think to read the book or question Lustig's "formula"? Did they even ask him about the method he "developed over the years"? While saying in the first paragraph that Lustig has "won the grand prize seven times," they don't reveal the only statistic that would make that meaningful: how much money he spent playing.

The number of times anyone wins anything is irrelevant unless you also know the amount they've lost. Since Lustig didn't say and ABC didn't ask, this story is a waste of cyber ink.

In "Want to win the lottery? This guy has a system," CNBC hops on the bandwagon:

Lustig didn't detail much of his system to CNBC -- that's in his book -- but he did give a few tips for those who want to rely on more than a little bit of luck: Avoid Quick-Pick lottery cards where the numbers are pre-selected. Buy at least 10 tickets. Play in lottery pools ....

So here's another news network that served up major publicity to a guy claiming to have a system to win the lottery without knowing what his "system" is, or even reading his book. I read the free copy furnished by his publicist -- it takes less than 45 minutes. Why didn't they?

In addition, they print tips like, "avoid Quick-Pick lottery cards" without stopping to think. Whether you pick a number or a machine does, the odds are the same. In lotteries like PowerBall, those odds are up to 1 in 176 million. Suggesting otherwise is nonsense.

The 'secrets' revealed

As I said in the video, Lustig's brochure-sized book does offer advice that makes sense. For example: Retain losing lottery tickets to offset potentially taxable wins. This is true in all forms of gambling. You can't deduct losses, but you can use losses to offset gains, thus reducing your tax liability in the unlikely event you win more than you lose in a given year.

The other sensible thing Lustig's book suggests is about second-chance drawings. Some lottery games allow you to send in losing tickets as entries for drawings for trips and other prizes. He suggests you do so.

But when it comes to helping you pick random numbers, his logic isn't logical.

Lustig's "system" includes always playing the same numbers, and to stop playing them if they win, because the same numbers never win twice. That's pretty much it -- and it's wrong. The odds of any set of random numbers coming up again are the same every time. That's why they call them random.

Interesting aside: The statistics professor we interviewed about Lustig's claims did have a suggestion for playing games like Powerball: Select numbers higher than 31. While that won't increase your odds of winning -- nothing will -- at least if you do win, you're less likely to split the pot. That's because so many people play their birthdays.

What you didn't see in the video above was the conclusion of my brief interview with Lustig, which basically devolved into a hostile exchange. As I was trying to explain that his system for picking winning lottery numbers makes no mathematical sense, he shot back with, "What do you think I am, an idiot?"

• Smart Spending on the go: Get our app for Android or iPhone

I responded, "You're no idiot, Richard. You're making money selling a $40 book with nonsensical advice. It's the people who buy it that are idiots."

In retrospect, however, there's one group of people who are more foolish -- those in the news business offering legitimacy to people like him while at the same time calling themselves journalists.

More from Money Talks News and MSN Money:

• The 10 golden rules of scam prevention
• Why house hunters shouldn't watch HGTV's 'House Hunters'
• Are expensive HDMI cables a rip-off?
• The No. 1 state for lottery suckers
• You won the lottery! Now what?
• I won the lottery -- and I'm keeping my job