WWTBAM Bored

silverscreenselect wrote:

littlebeast13 wrote:

Estonut wrote:That doesn't sound right. If the winning numbers are random (as advertised), then any combination of numbers is just as likely as any other to match the selected winners. Since many people who pick their numbers pick birthdays, you might be more likely to have multiple winners with low numbers. I believe the vast majority of buyers use the quick pick option, though.

Any winning drawing that is ALL numbers 31 and below is significantly more likely to match a winning ticket due to this phenomenon. Maybe not as likely as in the prehistoric lottery days of most players filling out scan trons, but still, a combination like 4, 7, 9, 15, 21, 25 is much more likely to hit a winning ticket since those numbers are all picked by players more often than, say, 10, 23, 33, 42, 55, 58....

lb13

Many casual players take quick picks and those numbers are randomly scattered. Keep in mind, though, that there are 302 million possible combinations, so even with quick picks, a lot of combinations will still be uncovered (although significantly fewer at the next drawing because of the considerably larger total number of tickets sold).

Any combination of numbers is as likely to hit as any other, but if you have two, three, or more times as many tickets sold with low numbers, even with overlaps, then more low number combinations will be covered than high number combinations, and the chances of a winner not being picked are much higher for high number combinations than for low ones.

Regular players often pick their "lucky" numbers, and they are often birthdays or other low numbers. Some of them are actually afraid of their quick pick for one drawing winning the next one and them not having those numbers, so they "protect" themselves by playing the same numbers all the time (in most states you can buy tickets for multiple drawings using the same numbers at one time). If we do get a bunch of low numbers in the next drawing, it's likely there will be more than one winner.

If the numbers 1-2-3-4-5 were ever to hit as the white ball numbers, you would have hundreds of winning tickets.

themanintheseersuckersuit wrote:It's not me

BackInTex wrote:

themanintheseersuckersuit wrote:It's not me

Oh sure, like you'd admit it if it was you.

silverscreenselect wrote:

BackInTex wrote:

themanintheseersuckersuit wrote:It's not me

Oh sure, like you'd admit it if it was you.

Well, you both have another chance tonight for $600 million.

And for those interested, Friday night's drawing (the $1 billion jackpot that rolled over) had about 70% of the possible combinations covered. Last night, it was about 90%, meaning that there was still a realistic chance of this jackpot rolling over.