OMAHA, Neb. — The odds are against something this odd.
A Nebraska Lottery official says the winning numbers for the state's Pick 3 lottery on Tuesday were exactly the same as the winning combination from the night before.
Lottery spokesman Brian Rockey says one of two lottery computers that randomly generate combinations picked the numbers 1, 9 and 6 — in that order — for Monday night's drawing. He says the other computer picked the same three numbers Tuesday in the same sequence.
The odds of such an occurrence? One in a million.
Rockey says one person won the game's top prize of $600 Monday but didn't win again the next night. Three other people won Tuesday's prize.
Thanks for jackpotismine for the tip.
It's not odd at all when dealing with computer generated combinations. :P
I wonder how it is calculated to be 1 in a million?
florida did the same thing with number 354 a couple of days ago
Happens all the time in KY.
I personally think when computerized drawings are involved, you can't use regular mathematical odds.
It really depends on what kind of RNG the computer is using.
With computers that use the decay of radioactive material as their basis for the random numbers, then I feel like it is sufficiently random, the odds are probably a good measure. (Although nothing makes me feel that computers should be used for ANY lottery drawing — they are too susceptible to hacking or errors, thereby bypassing the RNG.)
But for other RNGs, such as using the RNG that comes packaged in the operating system/programming language, that is NOT sufficiently random. In fact, it will produce patterns and someone who knows how the RNG works may be able to successfully predict it.
So one in a million? If Nebraska uses a regular RNG, then the odds are not going to be mathematically precise, they are going to be whatever the RNG's pattern dictates.
It's not 1 in a million. The probability of the previous night's draw mathing exactly the next night's draw is 1 in 1000. Exactly the same if someone plays one single straight play for that night's draw.
What kind of RNG does LP use on the qp's, Todd?
That makes sense, from the standpoint that in reality it has happened many times in the past.
I think it would be 1 in 1 million if you chose one particular combination in advance, and that combination hit on two consecutive days.
The Quick Picks generator available by clicking the link on the left uses a regular old RNG. I do make an effort to use constantly-changing seed values, but it is still a regular RNG.
I am in the process of changing that to a much better, cryptographically-advanced RNG, and I'm halfway finished.
In fact, if you use the iPhone/iPod Touch version of Lottery Post today, the quick picks generator in that site uses the new RNG. The Quick Picks generator in the main LP site will eventually look and work just like the iPhone version, which is also easier to use.
That is correct. If the same exact pick 3 number hit 3 times in a row, that would be 1 in a 1,000,000.
Same Combination 3 Times in a Row would be more like 1 in a 1,000,000,000.
no, that is not correct. it's 1 in a 1,000,000.
What would be the odds of the same number coming up three times in one week for example on Monday, Wednesday and Friday?
That's for any straight three draws in row.
Since all possible straight repeating drawn three times in a row is as follows:
1st - 2nd - 3rd
0 0 0 - 0 0 0 - 0 0 0
0 0 1 - 0 0 1 - 0 0 1
0 0 2 - 0 0 2 - 0 0 2
.
.
.
9 9 7 - 9 9 7 - 9 9 7
9 9 8 - 9 9 8 - 9 9 8
9 9 9 - 9 9 9 - 9 9 9
There are only 1,000 possible ways this can happen.
The total possible ways for any straight is as follows:
1st - 2nd - 3rd
0 0 0 - 0 0 0 - 0 0 0
0 0 0 - 0 0 0 - 0 0 1
0 0 0 - 0 0 0 - 0 0 2
.
.
.
9 9 9 - 9 9 9 - 9 9 7
9 9 9 - 9 9 9 - 9 9 8
9 9 9 - 9 9 9 - 9 9 9
This is a total of 1,000,000,000 possible ways this can happen.
This is 1,000 out of 1,000,000,000 or 1,000 / 1,000,000,000 total possible ways any straight can occur three draws in a row.
This reduces down to 1 / 1,000,000 or 1 in 1,000,000.
Happens in Ga all the time!