Greg:
It's not my intention to attack Gail Howard, her products or those of any other author/ distributor of similar, commercially available lottery systems. Ms. Howard was indeed one of the industry's foremost pioneers in developing the concept of "wheeling" number selections, and she certainly deserves credit for that. However, all lottery wheels, whether authored by Gail Howard or by someone else, are based on common mathematical formulas. Therefore, they're not proprietary.
I bought Ms. Howard's first publication way back in the seventies. As I recall, it was only a few sheets of photocopied paper stapled together, and the yellow cover featured a black-and-white snapshot of Ms. Howard. I remember I paid $19.95 for it, and on the very day it showed up in my mailbox I won $84.00 in Ohio's Pick-3 game with an investment of only $16.00. That sixty-eight dollar profit is to blame for my own obsession with number systems and the math that drives them, which brings me, finally, to my point.
Gail Howard's wheels are no better nor worse than those available here, those available on other free web sites or any you can buy through the mail. Gail Howard's wheels will give the player more coverage for less money, but so will Todd's. Gail Howard comprehensively explains how her wheels work, and so do we. Gail Howard gives you your own web page and private messaging... oh, wait, no she doesn't, but LotteryPost does! If you become confused, you can post a question to Gail Howard on her forum... sorry; no you can't! But if you post a question here, you'll get - not just one - but dozens of completely different answers to your query.
Plus, if you call now, you'll have the added bonus of possibly starting an argument by making an innocent comment in one of thousands of different threads. If it's any good, you'll be able to sit back and watch the show with very little further effort. You won't get that from some book. Also, LotteryPost doesn't get ruined if you drop it in the bathtub. This is NOT true of Gail Howard's material (it's a long story; you'll just have to trust me on this one).
It boils down to being a matter of choice. You won't waste your money on Ms. Howard's book, but you won't waste it with a premium membership, either. If you want to curl up on the sofa and spend an afternoon reading about charts, graphs, math and how to eliminate numbers from the field to narrow your selections, then the book would be the wiser option. However, if you feel more community-oriented, and you enjoy the company of nice people who want to help you win, then upgrading your membership is the way to go.
Of course, no one's saying you can't do both. This would probably be best, as Greg and I would both be happy and, when you think about it, isn't that what's most important?
The book is a one-time purchase; LotteryPost goes on forever.