johnph77's Blog

It is posted. All lottery matrices 2/2 to 7/100, all formulas, possibilities and odds for all hits.

http://www.johnph77.com/math/lo.html

My usual caveat - non-commercial, nothing to sell - information only.

Some horizontal scrolling will be necessary if horizontal screen resolution is less than 1600 pixels - unavoidable - sorry.

Bonus ball lottery section next - update in 2-3 weeks if all goes according to schedule.

Viewing/format/layout issues have been resolved and will be finalized when page is posted and link is public. As I had suspected, file size must and will increase to successfully deal with the issue - first section will be slightly larger than 500Kb.

The second section, dealing with lottery matrices with a bonus ball, ran into an unexpected snag. Given that, that part of the project now will not be posted until the section is halfway complete, rather than regularly while in progress, as originally desired.

Other than that, all is well. Project goes smoothly and progress is well ahead of ny original expectations.

First part of this page is well underway - over halfway finished. Progressing far better than expected. I feel good about the content, but there are display issues with which I have to deal. I haven't posted any links yet but will when the first table is complete.

After the first part of the page is posted, I'll do the bonus ball games - same format, from 2/2 to 7/100. That will be posted in progress. I won't touch the lottery matrices where balls are drawn from two different fields - far too many possibilities, and that info is already posted for those individual games in the present charts.

The page will be slightly larger than expected - about 400Kb in its first iteration, and possibly larger if the display issue has to be rectified in the way I think it has to be done.

Before I went too far into this, I Googled again for similar sites - nothing. This may be the first page created to display this specific information.

Keno Analysis section update complete. Pages now under ".css" control with new layout, more extensive alterations than originally planned. No new pages added, though - yet.

The page should allow viewing of all tables without cell wrapping or horizintal scrolling with a horizontal screen resolution of as little as 1024 pixels. This is untested.

In a rather strange twist the evolution of the analysis pages have given them an appearance nearing that of the tables presented on the lottery page. Now the lottery tables may later be updated to present the same information currently presented in the Keno analysis section. It probably means the upsizing of the lottery page by about 15%. A future project.

I was sitting back last night relaxing from the Keno analysis update project and having a beer when I thught of the many new games proposed by Lottery Post members. Most of them would be mathematically improbable, as attractive to the player they may seem. "Where do they get their ideas?" I wondered. "Did they do the math?" I came to the realization that nowhere on the 'Net - at least as far as I know - is there a page where the formulas, possibilities and odds for all the hits and all the totals for all possible lottery games are listed for ready reference, similar to that which I've done for sums and positional frequencies and what I have already posted for Keno.

So that's my 2007 project. Everything from 2/2 to 7/100. I've given it a tentative start, and it looks reasonably good. I have the software to do the project - I use it to do the games anyway. Problems? It's going to be a gold-plated monster to proofread. If I decide to expand it to include bonus ball games it'll be three or more times the work originally envisioned. It has to be readily accessible and readable, but hard to copy.

As I said, I've started. Whether or not I'll post as I make progress or wait until the page is complete, I haven't decided yet. But I'll be on a mission - as soon as the Keno update is complete. 

Keno Analysis section update continues, 45 of 51 pages updated with new format. Found a few errors on certain pages, corrected. Should be complete later this week, then a few additions, probably confined to a couple of casinos requested by a viewer, plus the rest of the government-owned games. After that, conversion to ".css"-controlled pages start. I'll probably complete this for the entire section before doing any uploading. One small change in number format, very minor changes in layout. Still going surprisingly well.

As an aside, the methodology for storing posted data is also in transition. Larger but standardized data files, but reduced hard copy.

Keno Analysis page update continues. 35 of 50 pages are in the new format. It's going very well.

The idea for a change in page layout is floating around in my head. I'll make greater use of external style sheets as has been done on other pages to make appearance changes easier in the future. But nothing will be done in this area until the current update is complete. I should have the tools to make this a relatively painless process - when it occurs. There will be one change - a minor one - in the presented data.

Updating the Keno analysis pages continues. 22 of the 43 pages listed are in the new format. All of the government-owned operations are current. It's the easier half, to be sure, but it's progressing well. Some new pages have been added as per viewer request, with more to come. Going well.

The largest file in the analysis section has been updated. File size expanded on the order of about 10%. All others expected to be the same, but it'll take some time.

As an adjunct, the paperwork will be standardized. Occasionally I've sent out hard copy to those who wish to do further analysis or take the data along with them when they visit the referenced casino, particularly when participating in tournaments. The new printouts appear far more professional than in the past.

While I had last worked on this project 18 months ago I had forgotten that a few - not many - of the files had been completed in the "new" format. All that needs to be done to them is to create the file for the standardized printout, and that's a snap.

Everything else should go well. There's some work where the printouts exist but no data appears anywhere on site. I'll be able to play catchup with that. I hadn't realized just how far behind I was.

Keno analysis update underway and going well.

The base spreadsheet used in this process still works and was adequate at the inception of this effort. But, in the ongoing work of the process, there are certain items I wish I had included to make data entry and processing simpler, easier and faster. It's evolutionary, and occurs in every project in which I've been involved - I don't think of everything. Since all files have to be overhauled to include the new data anyway, what better time to do that than now? So be it. I've just finished backtesting all of the new files I've created since the update got underway, and it works like a charm.

One other thing occured - the base file I had on the laptop also was subjected to experimental alterations while on the road and no longer matched the base file on the desktop. I forgot about that. They're also now the same.

All is well. The update should go far more smoothly than anticipated, and the time necessary should be slightly reduced. It's more of an error elimination process than anything else. The files, though, are hand-coded to minimize size and download time, and the time necessary to mod them will understandably remain more or less unchanged.

Onward and forward to bigger and better things.

I'm out of work - sort of. The funding for the project by which I've been employed for most of 2006 is in limbo, and no idea when it may or may not be released. I'm still dissatisfied with it - too much outside interference causing too many errors, but the statistical base is in reasonably good condition.

The lottery pages on my website are in better shape. Most of the U.S. lotteries have been updated and the rest of the page has been brought up to the current formatting where the code is concerned. I never did get the time to do the table for the OH Lot O' Play game but, with its imminent demise, I won't bother.

The Keno pages are a different story. Although the game is far more static with regard to format and data changes then lotteries, I haven't done any significant work in that area for at least 18 months. I haven't been getting to Las Vegas to obtain new data nearly as often as I had been in the past and, when I have gotten there, the available time for doing so has been more limited. Even so, there is a significant amount of data waiting to be processed and posted.

I had developed a modification in June 2005 to the format of the Keno analysis section, a mod that would include some data that probably should have been included there in the first place. There has been one - read one - entry using the new data format.

This will change. Now that I have more time on my hands I intend to do major work on the Keno pages. The tables for the display of formulas and computations has already been updated to include all known games. A little of the backlogged information has been processed and posted. There's more to do in this area.

But the biggest change over the next few weeks and months will be the analysis section. Similar (but far more involved) to the lottery payout and percentage page, it presents much of the same type of information. At one time I had envisioned this to replace the payout and percentage page but that has proven to be a bit unrealistic, at least for the present. Work is underway.

Concurrent to this (and totally invisible, of course) will be a complete overhaul in the manner in which existing data is stored on my computer. After standing away for the 18 months, it has become apparent that, with the current file structure, the process necessary to perform data modifications is too cumbersome. I've pretty much got a handle on the new spreadsheet structure, but all of the old ones have to be brought up to date.

There's also some technical and analysis work I want to do on the 5/55, 5/56 and 6/49 lottery matrices - something that's been in the back of my head for a couple of years.....

2007 should be interesting.....

Work on Pascal's Triangle page about 65% complete, but bogged down with an unlocatable (so far) error - and the last part is the toughest. One known error on the page was awaiting the next update but I may do an upload sooner. Reformatted the code for easier editing.

Did some percentages for Powerball occurance frequency for a friend - interesting, and a break from the usual work.

Had Christmas dinner with friends - good food, good times. I still have a lot of Christmas grog left over.

Trinidad and Tobago lotteries added to my lottery payout and percentage page.

All is well.

Holding off work on the project I've been working on for the last year - client funding difficulties.

Currently working on a pet project of mine - been on my website for well over a year and haven't done much with it - calculating real values for Pascal's Triangle. More on this as the page progresses, but it's amazing how much the real numbers have to do with lotteries.....

Desktop computer comes back from shop Saturday - video card crashed. Hard drive with all the working files on it intact. A relatively inexpensive fix.

All of the external components - monitor, keyboard, printer - have been hooked up to the laptop since I've been home from the last trip. Except for having to download some files, productivity hasn't been seriously affected save for some minor projects in need of periodic updating. The lottery page update - complete except for MI and lotteries outside the U.s. - was done with the laptop CPU. I'll have to spend some time transferring files when the desktop returns but nothing major.

The major project I've previously been working on is still in limbo. I haven't received the go-ahead on it as yet but there are sections I need to make corrections on regardless. That work is in progress.

Starting to settle into a daily routine - seems strange not being on the road this month.

In the last few years, several states have introduced a multi-tiered lottery game as their flagship game. Amongst those are MD, PA, DE and the Tri-State Lottery (ME, NH, VT). Anyone who is familiar with my website knows I break lottery games down, analyze them, list the various formulas and report game payout percentages. I'm here to tell you today, these games are an absolute monster to break down. Current worst case example is PA's Match 6, a game using a 6/49 matrix with 3 lines per ticket. There are 2,734,494,804,479,008,682,496 possible tickets. With numbers that large and spreadsheets peaking out at 15 characters max per number, there's a lot of pen-and-paperwork involved in doing the type of analysis I want to do and others have come to expect. The last two days alone have had nothing else completed save the Tri-State and MD games. If there's any good news to come out of this, the lottery pages on my site are being updated - finally.