In a Lottery game in which you have six numbers to select from 49 the odds of correctly selecting

 

3 numbers is          921 to 1

 

4 numbers is       14125 to 1

 

5 numbers is     317814  to 1

 

And for the Jackpot ......

The odds on selecting all six is

A massive     13,983,816 to 1

In the Dream Number draw the odds of selecting the first number is 10 -1 because there are ten choices being 0 through to 9.

 

But the prize is £2.00 - £1 plus your stake. In other words the bet is EVENS.

 

You’d be better off putting your pound on the favourite on the 2.30 race at Chepstow.

 

The first two numbers give a spread from 00 - 99. You receive £10 on a 100-1 shot. Think about it

How to win on the Lottery.

 

It’s possible to beat the odds and in a million without working but if you enjoy a gamble there are better odds to be found on the racetrack or at the Casino.

 

See the panel on the far right.

 

The odds are very long; especially on the Dream number game.

 

But if you want to be rich then a £1.00 stake is not going to break the Bank. And you can win. People do.

 

I have never won more than £60 on any Lottery draw and that was many years ago.

 

But I do like research and used to have a spreadsheet with every set of numbers ever drawn.

 

I studied the figures and made one observation.

 

By maximising the possibilities you reduce the odds and increase your chances of winning a million.

You can tip the odds in your favour.

 

My observations appear on the panel to the right. They need no more explanation.

 

If you take note of those selections that have almost no chance of being selected and then factor in all possible combinations it should remove hundreds of thousands of possible six ball selections, if not millions.

 

You would need a computer programmer and a lot of paper and ink to print out all possible permutations of six balls selected from a group of 49.

 

Then all you need do is scrub out all combinations detailed on the right.

 

This might still leave a host of six numbers on which to put your pound on the Lottery.

 

But there is a reasonable chance that one of those six numbers will hit the jackpot.

 

You might have to invest thousands but you will have won millions (assuming there are only a few winners to share the top prize).

 

So - it is possible to win the Lottery.

It is unlikely that a six number sequence will be selected ie; 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26.

 

Equally unlikely is a five number sequence such as: 39, 40, 41, 42, 43.

 

Been seen but rare is a four number sequence such as: 6, 7, 8, 9.

 

Not so common as you might think is a three number sequence: 32, 33, 34.

 

Two consecutive numbers ARE quite common BUT not to be selected with a run of four numbers such as:

8, 9, 10, 11, 43, 44.

 

Similarly you don’t see too much of two sets of three: 18, 19, 20, 37, 38, 39.

 

When you take these sequences together it eliminates quite a significant number of number choices you can make.

 

If you separate numbers into groups of approximately ten numbers such as:

 

1 - 9

10 - 19

20 - 29

30 - 39

40 - 49

 

then other patterns emerge, similar to the above.

 

You do not find six of the selected numbers in one group; rarely five but often four and quite frequently three.

 

It is also rare to find six odd numbers or six even numbers being selected.

 

A word on averages and probability; and for this purpose assume that each machine and each set of balls is equal in weight; otherwise the sets of figures for each combination of machine and balls will drive you crazy. And you don’t know the identity of them until the tills have closed.

 

Given that there are 49 balls it is fair to assume that over 8 weeks each one will have been selected once; 8 times 6 is 48.

 

However looking over the previous 8 weeks it will be obvious that this is not so. Some numbers appear twice, three or even four times. Some numbers not at all for 10, 20 or more weeks. But your decision to avoid numbers that have appeared over the previous three or four draw.

 

They used to call these ‘hot’ or ‘cold’ balls. A simple knowledge of probability will tell you that just because a number hasn’t appeared for over 10 draws it doesn’t mean it will come up on the 11th.

 

It is worth taking a chance on any number that hasn’t  been selected for more than 12 draws. Every dog has its day.

 

One odd thing to note is that quite often a number selected in one week will often be selected the next. The trick is to guess which one, based on the likelihood of any number only appearing once in 8 weeks - in a perfect world this would be easy.

 

Which in the world of Lottery - it is not.

The Home Page of John Barber