I purchased this book (Lottery Master Guide) from Amazon last week and then almost immediately ordered the popular set of Smart Luck software that was discussed in the book (Advantage Gold and Wheel Gold 5&6).THE BOOKThis book represents a comprehensive study of winning Lotto numbers from all states in the US as well as Lotto games in other countries. It includes info on regular Lotto as well as ‘Powerball’ type Lotto games, but it is mostly about regular Lotto games. Ms Howard has several other books that discuss ‘Powerball’ type games and other games as well. Included in this book are mostly 4, 5, and 6 number games.This book being somewhat technical requires study on the user’s part. It is not for those who are looking for a 10 minute answer. You should be prepared to spend couple of weeks reading and rereading the book as there are a lot of details. However in doing so, you will be rewarded with much better playing odds than just using your grandchildren’s birthdays, your family’s ages or even quick picks. By reducing your odds, you substantially increase your chances of winning a Lotto game.The material in this book constitutes the subject of Forecasting. It is similar to doing charting or technical analysis for stock market picks. There are software programs available that will allow you to forecast the direction of a stock or the market in general. This book is similar to that type of thing so if you have done stock market trending or charting, you will be right at home here.In order to make the best use of the material in Gail’s book, you will need a computer and a spreadsheet program such as Corel Quattro Pro, or Microsoft Excel. Any version of these programs will be fine for this application. It is possible to use a paper and pencil approach but it will require more of your time.I am usually annoyed when I buy a book and it refers to a software package that is not included with the book. This book mentions in several places the Advantage Gold software package that is sold separately. In this case, I found the referral to be quite helpful as the software automates many tasks, such as downloading all the past winning numbers from any game and greatly speeds up the analysis of the number trends. It is not very expensive compared to other forecasting tools. I paid $1200.00 for the stock market software application, whereas Gail’s program was only about $68.00 (on sale). After receiving the software I can safely say that the features provided are definitely worth $68.00. You would have to spend many weeks using Excel to get the same feature set as what is included in the Advantage Gold software. If your interest is less serious or your budget is small, you can cover the basics with MS Excel and the book.The premise of this book is not to guarantee that you will win. No tool or service is going to do that regardless of what they tell you. But if you can reduce your odds from 22 million down to 50 thousand or less, then you are much closer to winning, especially if you play every week. The approach taken here will allow you to play taking into account different budgets. So if you play 5 games per week or 50, that type of thing is covered. I found the suggestions Gail makes to be very helpful and logical, in addition to having a good mathematical base. Since I am an Engineer, I would reject any software that does not use mathematics in a correct way. My guess is that Gail or someone on her staff does have some substantial mathematical training.The book is divided into two areas. First, the theory of her ideas is discussed, and then afterwards, how to use this theory to do forecasting is detailed. She does not call it theory or forecasting, but that is essentially what it is. The book and/or software will help you to choose a set or multiple sets of numbers that have a higher probably of winning then just by guessing. Whether this results in more winnings remains to be seen but if you are going to play Lotto, you might as well use the best information possible.I am writing this after only owning the book and software for 1 week. I will update the review after a few months of use with both.RecommendedBobztEngineer