Rare occurrence in popular draw game
By Kate Northrop
Whoever won in an Ohio Lottery Pick 4 drawing last week had a chance to win again using the same numbers, with two drawings in a row producing the same results.
Two Pick 4 drawings produced the same number combinations back-to-back in Ohio last week.
On Oct. 2, the Ohio Pick 4 evening game drew the numbers 6-9-9-4. Players matching those numbers with a $1 wager in exact order won a $5,000 prize.
The very next drawing, the Oct. 3 midday draw, produced the same four numbers in the same order.
"The odds of the Pick 4 game are 1 in 10,000 and the odds do not change, so the probability of a number being drawn more than once is high," Lottery Deputy Director of Communications Danielle Frizzi-Babb told Dayton Daily News.
Since every drawing is an independent event, there is an equal chance of 1 in 10,000 that every number combination will be drawn in a single drawing.
Given the large number of Pick 4 drawings in Ohio's history, there have been more opportunities for a rare event like this to occur. Before the October 2 evening and October 3 midday drawings, there had been 22,522 Pick 4 drawings.
According to Lottery Post's Combinations Analysis for the Ohio Lottery's Pick 4 game, 18 number combinations have been drawn twice this year (2024), although none of them were in back-to-back drawings.
"The October 2 and 3 drawings are the only time the same number has been drawn in back-to-back drawings this year," Frizzi-Babb added.
Players can view a complete list of odds and prize payouts for Pick 4 by visiting Lottery Post's Ohio Prizes and Odds page.
Pick 4 drawings take place two times a day, at 12:29 p.m. and 7:29 p.m. EST, seven days a week. Players may choose their own four numbers or select the Quick Pick option to allow the computer to choose numbers for you.
All winning numbers, prizes, and odds are published on Lottery Post's Ohio Lottery Results page right after each drawing.
If it's like the 2017 AZ lotto fail, where a hardware failure resulted in the same numbers being chosen, then pick the same numbers again and win again.
Here are the news stories about that:
(Obviously this incident is not related to this Ohio story, but makes for interesting reading of a similar topic!)
Sorry to ask this AGAIN and ICR where to find out the information.
Is OH! pick 3/4 still mechanical ball drawings?
BTW CA did well with secondary PB last night...better than Powerplay= $2.31 million or thereabout!
You see the drawing type for any game by visiting the lottery results page and tapping on the game logo. Here is the Ohio Lottery Results page: https://www.lotterypost.com/results/oh
Thats why I play my winning number again after it hits .never know what they'll pull up again 💯🙌🏻😁
On Tuesday the KY pick 4 had the same number boxed on Midday and Evening.
Cool! Much easier to do that however — 1 in 417 vs 1 in 10,000 for a straight repeat.
Thank you Todd.
Saw a Tesla just now parking lot. 6666. Walked towards the store and said let me look again....6666. Car by the store 081; first three of my SSAN are 018...must play on line now!
Slip in a 1010 to play for Tesla today. (10/10 event tonight)
Good idea, $2 str/box so I can get $10K!!
KY lottery just joined the $50 scratch ticket club to win up to $5 million. Offers two top prizes valued @ $3.4 million. Now if any are won in Louisville, the haters of Facebook will have a field day!
Happened in Md too, same day.
This is not rare coincidence this is cheating in controlled environment. Because it happened to the p3 # also. 651 then 615. They need go back to letting humans pick the number live. That's more believable. Another thing is locking out combinations such as 4444 etc. If it is random why stop us from playing certain combinations. Cheaters!!!
Involving the same 3 digits: 4, 6, and 9.