Coincidence, not a mistake, officials say
The Play 4 Florida lottery number Tuesday night: 1-9-5-8.
The Play 4 Florida lottery number Wednesday afternoon: 1-9-5-8.
Same game. Same number. Two consecutive drawings.
"It is a little bit unusual, but all of our drawings are independent of each other," said Shelly Safford, Lottery spokeswoman. "It's completely random."
Still, the department fielded calls from curious players. "There was not an error," Safford said.
But there was another oddity.
Wednesday's payout from the midday drawing, which was added to the state's roster of get-rich-quick games May 19, was nearly $1.3 million with 1,275 winners. Before that, the average payout was just $87,769 with 281 winners.
The spike may simply be because more people bet on the winning sequence — 1-9-5-8, Safford said.
The previous highest payout for the Play 4 midday contest was nearly $470,000 on June 10. The winning combo that afternoon: 2-7-2-7.
"There are just certain number combinations that seem to be more popular with players," Safford said. "As far as the security and integrity of the two drawings, it's nothing being investigated or anything."
Lottery workers take security precautions in the Play 4 Game, where winning numbers are selected mechanically from tanks of numbered pingpong balls, Safford said.
In Pennsylvania in the 1980s, a Pittsburgh TV announcer and a lottery official were convicted of rigging the $3.5 million Daily Number by tampering with the pingpong balls.
The lucky numbers that day: 6-6-6.
Thanks to BobP for the tip.
Wow.The odd's of any Win 4 number hitting straight on any given night are 1 in 10, 000.So what are the Odds of the same # hitting straight two nights in a row?Correct me if i'm wrong, but does anyone know the odds of the same Play 4 # hitting "straight" two consecutive nights in a row?
1 in 10, 000 x 1 in 10,000= 1 in 10,000,000 ?
No that would be the odds of hitting it three times in a row. They are independent events and when you are comparing one to another its is just the odds of that number coming up. When 1958 came up there was a 1 in 10,000 chance that the next drawing would result the same numbers.
Brad
I posted about this in the pick-4 forum on Wed and remarked that 1958 is the year a lot of lottery players are born. That might be why there were so many winners. People bet birthdays a lot, so maybe a birth year is more popular then other combinations. Just a guess. At first I thought 1958 on Tues & Wed was another mistake on the FL Lottery web site, but I checked Lottery Post to make sure.
Maybe another reason for the large payout is that people bought advanced plays because of the weather. I rarely buy them, but I did Monday, since power outages were predicted throughout the state.
Regarding the odds, I agree with Bradly. Also, since the FL Lottery conducts 6 pre-tests before the second Play-4 drawing, it really wasn't consecutive in the true sense. (which is why I don't like them!!)
Me so born in 1958! Hit in MD. boxo but not str8oh this year. I wait long time, for 1958, I wish I live in FLA. last week! IDA BEEN NOUVEAU RICHEE.................................................
And today 9153! The 8 turned into a 3!
Since Eisenhower was a Republican Prez. in 1958 and was born in 1890 I am going to start multiple on 1890.
MD past few days:
Of course yesterday I played 5189 multiple, and 8901 single day and night! Today I was looking for 3296! AAAAhhhhhrrrrgggg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tonight I will have my way 7594 all the way!
"Wednesday's payout from the midday drawing, which was added to the state's roster of get-rich-quick games May 19, was nearly $1.3 million with 1,275 winners. Before that, the average payout was just $87,769 with 281 winners."
I believe there are people who's system is to play the last drawn number again in the next draw in the hope exactly what happened in Florida will happen again.
Look at the difference between how many played that number Tuesday night and how many played Wednesday morning. Does that look like people playing their birth year to you or putting a couple of bucks down on yesterday's number on purpose?
If they are playing a Pick-4 Tic Tac Dough, it would include the numbers from the last four draws played across. Bingo! BobP
The odds of a Pick-4 STR repeating is 1/10000 per drawing of it repeating the one before it. That means it should happen about every 15 years or so in any given State. Considering how many daily drawings there are everyplace, it should happen every year or two, right?
It's the same thinking that "the odds of winning Powerball are 1-175M" or whatever, but that's based on only one ticket on only one drawing.
In the new PA Quinto (A daily Pick-5 digit game similar to the 3 or 4) there are some kinds of numbers (Quints, I call them) that type would only happen every 15 years also.
ladydc I was born 1958
You're not explaining this correctly because you want to prove a point which is that systems and formulas work. Read the article again.
First of all, the article says the average payout is $87,000 with 281 winners. It does not say that Tuesday evening's payout was $87,000. In fact, the payout on Tuesday evening was $1.8 million. So Wednesday drawing paid less which completely contradicts your theory.
If playing the pick from the previous evening is a "system," it's not a good one. Go through all the Play-4 drawings for the past few years in FL. This is a very rare event, which is why there was so much suspicion. In fact, I originally thought it was a mistake on the FL site until I checked the results on Lottery Post.
"Look at the difference between how many played that number Tuesday night and how many played Wednesday morning. Does that look like people playing their birth year to you or putting a couple of bucks down on yesterday's number on purpose?"
No. I copied this from the Florida web site.
Tuesday evening
Wednesday midday
I think more people play night than day, just a guess.
Lotto Gazette reporter:
So, Casmir, tell us about this new Pick-4 system of yours.
Casmir: Well, I land on a number I really like and play it straight for $1.
LG: And if you hit?
Casmir: Well, that's the beauty of my system. When I hit (I'm still waiting to), I'm going to play the entire payoff right back on the same number. When I catch that one it will be a doozie!
I think of it as BET IT TILL IT HITS AND THEN PARLAY IT!
LG: Good luck, Casmir
Casmir: Thank you!
LG: Das vadanya
I agree, Jarasan. That's generally the case, but since the midday drawings began only on May 19th, any research on averages wouldn't be conclusive. But what are you saying? That you agree with BobP many people bet the same number that hit the night before? Since there were 6 pre-tests conducted before the second drawing, then someone would have to pick the 7th drawing, not the next one. Most people aren't even aware of the pre-tests. As I previously wrote, since this is very rare and the top prize is $5,000 the person who does that might win, but only after losing as much as he lost (or more) If someone wants to look at the past few year's results, go ahead and let me know. I couldn't find any others.
Also, did anyone here take into consideration that there was a very bad storm hitting Florida at this time? On Mon we were asked not to leave our homes on Tues, except in an emergency. All government offices were closed in my county. By Wed many areas in FL were flooded and without electricity. Governor Crist declared a State of Emergency. 500 National Guard troops were activated, etc. I bet many people bought advanced plays and won twice. Don't people often bet their numbers for the week even when the weather is nice? Unless I misunderstand the comments that make predictions on LP, members often post numbers for the week. So I assume they are saying "play this pick-3 or pick-4 all week." If 1958 is a popular number like 777, then it only makes sense that there were a lot of winners on both days.
"the average payout was just $87,769 with 281 winners"
Just one more question - if the reason for the unusually large payout on Wed morning is that many people decided to play Tues evening's winning numbers, then what explanation is there for the $1.8M payout on Tues? It was because, as the article says, some combinations are just more popular than others.
No, I just think as a general thing "day" gets played less. There is no system to playing birthdays, IMHO, if you hit a bday it is probably because you play it again and again ad infinitum until you get tired of handing money over and give up so that it will finally drop the day you stop playing it.
I can guarantee the day I stop playing the number I've been waiting on for over year that it'll drop the next drawing or within a couple of days. It has happened to me at least 6 times this year on derived plays.
OK I DIDNT REALIZE THIS HAD HAPPENED AS I RARELY PLAY THE CASH 3 PLAY 4 GAMES ... but for the CASH 3 Evening drawings of MARCH 12 & MARCH 13TH 2008 both were 1 - 2 - 7 (IN THAT ORDER) Now , this is not consecutive BUT as I also recently found out yes, PRE TESTS are done so truly not rndom....and the first thing thought when i saw the highpayouts (on 1958) is......BIRTH YEAR
payouts for cash 3 evening draws MARCH 12 = 1 - 2 -7 (9762 WINNERS) = $1 163 135
MARCH 13 = 1 - 2 - 7 (11,216 WINNERS) = $1 235 555
ANYONE want to speculate on WHY the payouts of these 2 draws so high>and soo many winners !!! Rarely is the payout on a cash 3 draw over 1 MILLION
ALSO i agree less people are playing the afternoon draws !
amin
Jarasan, I said I agree that day drawings get less play than evening drawings. That's easy to prove, although FL has only had midday plays for 3 months. But nobody is answering why, if the reason so many people won on Wed is because they bet the same numbers from Tues evening, there 5 to 10 times the winners on Tues night as well?
Look at yesterday's numbers. Same night (Tues) and there were 256 winners, payout $79,250. Today the drawing (Wed midday) there were 137 winners, payout $43,400. Look at the numbers I pasted in my above comment from the same days last week when 1-9-5-8 was drawn.
Sometimes there are just 4 number combinations that are more popular than others, which is what the article points out, and maybe the upcoming storm had something to do with it too. I was guessing 1-9-5-8 was played so much because a lot of people were born that year or graduated high school or college in 1958 or got married in 1958. To me that makes sense. In any case, I was never disagreeing that more people usually buy tickets for the evening draw, because it's true. I was only saying that both the Tues evening and the Wed midday drawings both had several times the average number of winners.
@amininflorida - Pick-3 has lower odds and repeat numbers are more common, however, I still think that it's possible that many people play the same numbers all the time or play them for the week. In March there was no midday draw, but I think many people continued to just play "the next game" without understanding the change. As members of LP, I think we pay much more attention to these things than the average player. Just my opinion.
BTW, I don't usually play pick-3 or pick-4 games, but when the Lottery reports the number of winners and the payouts, they're not breaking them down, right? So the total includes the people who play the numbers straight, boxed, etc. (is this correct?)