Which odds are better?

It is my contention that even though the machine is random at picking balls, the event is not completely random because the balls are numbered. I know that should not matter but the fact remains, part of the event is a numbered and ordered set of balls. Even a slot machine which has a RNG chip tends to run hot and cold. How is that possible?

If you flip a coin do you expect a perfectly regular alteration of heads and tails or do you only expect that after many flips it will be fairly close to 50% of each?

It's possible because if the events are random, they should usually differ from the average expected result in the short term.

Only in the long term can you be reasonably confident the results will be very close to matching the average, and the amount of events that constitute "the long term" change depending on what the event is, and how confident you want to be in the results.

Like KY Floyd said, do you expect a coin flip to alternate every time, or just be reasonably close to 50/50 after a whole lot of flips?  If coin flips alternated like that, or random events were predictable, then the casinos would go bankrupt, and the lottery wouldn't win.

But they are random events, and nobodies sucking them dry by "predicting" which balls are more likely to show.

What is it about the fact that the balls have numbers on them that makes you think that it would somehow be less random as a result?

If there were letters instead, would that change the probablities?  Or shapes?  Or playing cards?

See, if the sums were relevant, then wouldn't those same characteristics appear with letters?  They can't, because you can't add letters.  But the probabilities wouldn't change if the number of balls are the same.

Before the laws of aerodynamics were discovered I'm sure very few people on the whole entire planet believed a pile of steal and iron could fly through the air. If the balls were unmarked then I would say yes, it is entirely random event and impossible to have a predetermined outcome, but because the balls are numbered, lettered, or whatever, they are identifiable one from another and it can be predicted what the outcome will be. And if it can be predicted, it was predetermined, and if it was predetermined there are (some how, some way) laws that determine the outcome of each draw. Just because we cant tell the future does not mean it cant be done. It just means we don't (yet) know how to do it. When I figure it out I will win 2 in a row just to prove I can do it, and then let everyone think it was crazy luck so they don't arrest me or take away the winnings.

I have decided that my odds are 35 times better on a $500,000. jackpot with a $20. scratcher ticket, so I will be spending the $500. (or more) on that instead of the MM long shot.

In the mean time I will still play 10 lines per draw on MM in defiance of Thriftys "system" of only spending $1. per draw total. My cost will be around $100. a month but its cheaper than a smoking habit and healthier.