the lottery is a business remember that first of all. let's say that you played a number at a retailer and the attendent say's to you the computer is not taking that number you must play a different number. you would be shocked and wonder why. the real reason is this that if that number comes out the lottery would have to pay lots of money to everyone. and they would lose bigtime. remember the house always wins in any game even if it does not looks like it. i alway's try to play my numbers in the street where it pays more for your money. if you play in the street they paid 300.00 for a .50cent play and 600.00 for a 1.00 play and so on. i have hit many times in the street the second reason to play in the street is that the folks at the lottery don't know what numbers your playing this is a good thing so when the numbers come out bingo you have a better chance of winning.the problem is that with each number you play leagally you chang the results over there where the lottery people are at. you force them to change the number that they had in mind to throw out that day so in conclusion i rather play my numbers in the street where they have no qlue of what numbers im going to play that day. the numbers that you can play in the street are the pick-3 and the pick -4 and speaking of the pick-4 depending where you play them and with who the pay out will be from 5,000 to 7,000 wow!!!!!