Lottery Cock up

It's merely a tax on the gullible and stupid.

This can be proved with a fun experiment. Try explaining to your average lottery player that they'll have an identical chance of winning with the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and they'll never believe you - they'll give you weird and wonderful theories about how it'd be a waste of money because those numbers would never come out!

In fact you've got more chance of winning by betting on Slovenia winning the next World Cup by beating Paraguay 7-6 in the final.

I don't know, the Thunderball got stuck - we could say it was a bit constipated last night thats all.

You would have the same odds, but it is also rational not to do that - there must be loads of other people who have sets of consecutive numbers like that, so if they did come up you'd probably end up sharing the jackpot.

No guarantee that it won't happen with any other set of numbers but certainly less likely.

I guess if they didn't stop it and go through a strict procedure then one of the papers (or similar) would start printing conspiracy theory headlines of "lottery fix" etc..

ISTR some years ago 1, 2, 3 and 4 all came up and there were thousands more winners than normal of the 3 & 4 ball prize. Obviously more people simply select 1-6 each week than you would think!

There's always been a cap - no jackpot can roll more than three times, on the fourth draw it MUST be won. That's always been the case.

What's changed is that jackpots have gone down because (a) the Wednesday draw was introduced and included in the Saturday rolling over when it only sells half the tickets and (b) fewer tickets are being sold in general for both Wednesday AND Saturday.

I heard once that 30,000 people pick 1,2,3,4,5 and 6 every week, so it wouldn't really be worth much if those numbers came up!

If you're worried about sharing money, your best bet is to pick at least four non-consecutive numbers from 32-49, given how many people use birthdays.

Well if you want the scientific approach, the way to win the most (ie sharing your money with the least number of people) is to pick numbers around the edge of the ticket. Statistically fewer people select numbers there than in the main body of the form.

Statistically, the best numbers are from around one to six, and thirty-two to forty-nine. It also makes no difference whether someone plays a lucky dip every week or keeps the same numbers.

This is because while the first data set (ticket numbers) may remain the same, the second data set (the balls drawn) is reset each time the game is played, and the previous outcome(s) have no influence on the second set.

The statistical probability of winning the jackpot (six numbers) is ((6/49)*(5/4*(4/47)*(3/46)*(2/45)*(1/44)):1, which is 7.15112384202 * 10^-8. In other words, your chances are ridiculously small. So why bother?

Because you might win.

I've just watched that clip and it's truly awful. The drawmaster looked ridiculous with the straight hand in the air and then the rehearsed speech that said nothing about the actual problem.

I don't understand whilst he waited so long either - he let Alan get through reading almost all the numbers before stopping it.

I can see why he stopped it because it could have been tampered with, but then again it was evident which ball had been drawn.



I would be more disappointed if I had five numbers and only won £2000 like the poster on the previous page. I'd have thought a lot more than that.

As it happened I got just two so won nothing at all, again.