The people I know who have won medium to large prizes in the lottery are people who play fairly regularly and won after years of playing. From a mathematical point of view, the probability of winning a major prize is close to 0, whether it's your first time betting or you've been doing it for years. What happens is that if we consider the series of betting every week for many years and several bets, it's more likely that you'll win than someone who is betting for the first time.