Patterns in Lottery Numbers

markmcb writes "Most everyone is familiar with the concept of the lottery, i.e., random numbers are selected and people guess what they will be for a cash prize. But how random are the numbers? Matt Vea has conducted a pattern analysis of the MegaMillions lottery, which recently offered a sum of $370M (USD) to the winner. Matt shows that the lottery isn't as random as it may seem and that there are 'better' choices than others to be made when selecting numbers. From the article, 'A single dollar in MegaMillions purchases a 1 in 175,711,536 chance of landing the jackpot ... a player stands a mildly better chance of winning a partial prize through the selection of weighted numbers.'" Includes some excellent charts of his analysis.

Comments

Re:And yet, one truth escapes the analysis

[Colin Smith]

Math - Idiot, why bother? You have a higher probability of making money on the stock market by random selection. A monkey can make money on the stock market better than you! Very very few people or companies make money on the stock market. The overwhelmingly vast majority simply stand still while everyone else falls. Buy a NYSE or FTSE all share tracker fund and you too can stand still.

John Edwards Refuted

[E 99]

I submit TFA is a conclusive refutation of John Edwards' claim that every American should go to college.