I just learned about a method players can use to "sanity check" the lines on their tickets. (Not that I haven't already thrown so much information at players that they feel like they're on the receiving end of a fire hose!)
It's called "Gap Distribution". Here's how it works;
Last night these five numbers were drawn ====> 4 10 25 33 36
If I did an analysis on the gaps (the difference) between the numbers it would look like like this ====> 4 (5) 10 (14) 25 (7) 33 (2) 36
There are five numbers between #4 and #10, there are fourteen numbers between #10 and #25 etc. The gaps between each winning number add up to 28. (5+14+7+2=28)
Believe it or not, in the 7,396 FF5 drawings held since July of 2001, the most common gap total is 24. 487 times out of 7,396 draws, a gap total of 24 has been drawn.
A good range of gap totals is from 20 to 26. If your line has a gap total that falls within a range of 20 to 26, then that line is a nice line. That range represents 42% of all the jackpot winning lines ever drawn. (In 42% of all drawings, the total of the gaps between the numbers falls between 20 to 26) So the gap total of last nights numbers (28) is outside of the good range to be in.
I realize this is information obscure... and without a computer and lottery software, I dont know how players could ever realize such a thing as a "gap total" even exists, and what a good range of gap totals is that is a good place to be. G5