Same lottery numbers win game twice

Feb 14, 2006, 2:09 pm (18 comments)

Wisconsin Lottery

Got a lucky lotto number?  You might want to stick with it.

Wisconsin lottery officials report the same combination has won the SuperCash game twice within ten days.

SuperCash is drawn using a computerized drawing machine, rather than a traditional lottery ball machine.

The winning numbers 4, 5, 10, 16, 25 and 29 came up January 30th and again February 9th.

State lottery mathematician JonMichael Rasmus says the odds of that happening are about one in 326,000. He says it's like flipping a coin and having it come up heads 18 times in a row.

No one had all six numbers the first time around. In the second drawing, three players had the combination and win $350,000 each.

As reported on the Lottery Post State Lottery Report Card (https://www.lotterypost.com/lottery-report-card.asp), the Wisconsin Lottery uses computerized drawings for all of its state-run games.

In the past, other states have found glitches in their computerized drawing computers which caused the same numbers to be drawn repeatedly.

This event stands to add fuel to the fire for opponents of computerized drawings, who insist that state lotteries should only use traditional mechanical drawing machines, because of the inherent problems and suspicions with computerized drawings.

Lottery Post Staff

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Bradly_60's avatarBradly_60

You don't see this happen to often in bigger games like SuperCash but it is interesting when it happens.

Brad

BaristaExpress's avatarBaristaExpress

This event stands to add fuel to the fire for opponents of computerized drawings, who insist that state lotteries should only use traditional mechanical drawing machines, because of the inherent problems and suspicions with computerized drawings.

That's an understatement! All they are doing is making our point even stronger against computerized drawings! I love it when they do things like that! Big Grin

gocart1's avatargocart1

this is y  there has to be an end to computerized lottos

fja's avatarfja

I remember Ohio super lotto, with 10 years of history for the pick six, I think only twice did 5 of 6 numbers come out from a previous draw.....and those were years apart...

Bradly_60's avatarBradly_60

Why is it bad?  Look what happened.....3 people won the second drawing while no one won in the first drawing.  The only way for the player to win in a lottery is to have a computer glitch where it is in the players favor.  What is so different between computer drawings and ping-pong ball drawings.  Are you guys really that worried that lotteries are going to cheat.  Is that the only reason.  It is the only reason I can think of.  It's not really as bad as you guys make it out to be.

Brad

mylollipop's avatarmylollipop

Okay, it happened and I hope that it will happen again when somone can win big, thus it would have to rollover a couple of months, then BINGO!Then computerized drawings will be eliminatedClown

justxploring's avatarjustxploring

I can't be 100% certain, but I believe that no set of 6 numbers has ever been repeated since the Florida Lotto began in 1988.

Editgap

I guess using the same seed generates the same number. What a surprise

Just6ntlc

Congratulations to the three winners who pick the same numbers in February 9th draw. However, I want to see Wisconsin Super 6 goes from computerized to ball drawing because that way no more 6 number combinations will be the same.

Bingo Long

It was lucky for us (that is, for those of us who oppose computer drawings) that this happened, because ghe game isn't pari-mutuel:

Let's assume the repeated number was the result of a computer glitch.  Assuming winners in last night's drawing were randomly distributed, and that yesterday was a typical day for sales, it looks like about $80k worth of SuperCash tickets are sold each day.  Running prizes against odds it looks like this is a 50% game, with 21 cents on the dollar going towards the $350k prize.  And let's assume that the people who played the winning number only did so because it had come up in the past (again, a fairly reasonable assumption, since no one played it one week, and 3 people played it the next, and it wasn't just a case of one person playing the same number multiple times).

 The wisconsin lottery paid out $1,050,000 for the grand prizes for the repeated draw.  The expected payout on a random drawing is around $16k.  Which means that the wisconsin lottery LOST more than A MILLION DOLLARS because of buggy code.

Also, according to my calculations, the probability of the same number occuring twice in 10 days is 1 in 73,000.  1 in 326,000 (the odds that the guy from the lottery quoted) are the odds of the same number occuring twice in 10 days, given that the previous 9 were all different.  

BabyJC's avatarBabyJC

Awesome if it happens when you have a season ticket!

CASH Only

Awesome if it happens when you have a season ticket!

I don't think Wisconsin has subscription play. But I'm sure multi-draw is available with SuperCash.

LckyLary

In Jersey Cash 5, there are at least two or maybe up to four times I can remember a set of numbers coming up the same 10 or so days later. One time the first paid 440K and the repeat paid maybe 5K. Those drawings are *NOT* computerized.

Also... if the computerized draws do that then take advantage of it! The main thing I hate about computerized draws is they can't be systemized as easily..but maybe it's the opposite?

Chewie

In Jersey Cash 5, there are at least two or maybe up to four times I can remember a set of numbers coming up the same 10 or so days later. One time the first paid 440K and the repeat paid maybe 5K. Those drawings are *NOT* computerized.

Also... if the computerized draws do that then take advantage of it! The main thing I hate about computerized draws is they can't be systemized as easily..but maybe it's the opposite?

WOW! That must have been a few years ago.  Now, it always has a minimum of $60K-$70K (rare exception).  With the rollover, more people seem to be betting higher amounts.  I've played Cash 5 every day for the last three years, track it by spread sheet, and bet the reoccurring numbers a lot.  Have made quite a bit on repeated numbers.  Never hit the max though.  Four numbers a couple of times.

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