This Woman Has Won 4 Mega Lotteries...How Did She Do It?

Maybe the odds of winning the lottery would be a lot better if Joan Ginther would stop buying all the good tickets.

By now you may have heard of the Las Vegas resident, who you probably want sitting next to you when an asteroid, slungshot by aliens, is aimed at your plane. She recently cashed in a winning $10 million scratch-off ticket, making the lucky woman a four-time lottery winner.

That's right, four times. And while she now lives in Sin City thereabouts, the multi-millionaire prefers her to buy her tickets in her home state of Texas. The state, like many others, is on track to having one of its best lottery years ever during tough economic times...and that might be a bad thing. But, more on that later. First, a look at Ginther's lottery loot so far, and the odds:

• 1993: $5.4 million (paid in yearly installments). Odds: 1 in 15.8 million
• 2006: $2 million (lump-sum payoff). Odds: 1 in 1,028,338.
• 2008: $3 million (lump-sum payoff). Odds: 1 in 909,000.
• 2010: $10 million (lump-sum payoff). Odds: 1 in 1,200,000.