Odds are, stunning coincidences can be expectedPrevious TopicNext Topic

" Ever consider writing a book?"

Thanks. I may write well, but that's a lot different than being a writer, and it's alot different than being a story teller.

"yet 3 statiticians all report diifferent odds?"

I read an article saying there are at least two diferent lotteries in Bulgaria. Early on I was under the impression that the one in question was 6/49, but another article says it's 6/42. That accounts for the 1 in 14 and 1 in 5.2 million figures. Nobody seems to know where the 1 in 4 million figure came from.

"...a widely held misconception that there is a system or order that makes sense of random processes. Some lottery players believe that winning lottery combinations can be reasoned out, or that a recent set of winning numbers is less likely to win again than any other combination."

I use a system to pick MegaMillions combinations but it's based on the history of previous MM drawings and not on a belief that random has a certain order or behaves in a predictable manner.  So far no combination of five has ever repeated and only a few combinations of fours have but less than .034% of its possible 5 number combinations have been drawn during the entire history of the game including its BigGame drawings.  From studying the drawings results of other pick5 games like Buckeye5 and Rolling Cash5, I expect this will change since it happened in those games after .25% of their possible combinations were drawn but even then it didn't happen very often.

"I use a system to pick MegaMillions combinations but it's based on thehistory of previous MM drawings and not on a belief that random has acertain order or behaves in a predictable manner."

Then what point do you see in using the "history of previous MM drawings" other than engaging in math for purely recreational reasons? The rest of your post seems to indicate a belief that sensible choices "can be reasoned out" based on  past history.

There really is no point other than I like picking my own numbers and playing the lottery is recreational for me.  Past history for me is as good as a hunch or any other way to pick a few lines to play.

Really good post....thanks for sharing!!!!

yeah i know a  few people who smuggly tell me lotto is a stupid way to spend my money. and

they " never buy lotto "

im sure they'll be at the head of the queue to get handouts if I ever win a  large amount to.

almost as bad as the people i know who dont even buy tickets and bang on about how they will give everyone a share.