Don't approach playing the lottery like this. "Gee my odds are 9 billion to 1". You can improve your chances by playing the odds. That's just wrong. Sure, winning the lottery will always be a matter of luck but with some thought, you can IMPROVE your odds somewhat. Check out Ars Conjectandi, "The Law Of Large Numbers", by Jacob Bernoulli (sound familiar?) published eight years after his death in 1713. Just looking at the primary part of the game.. the 5 numbers between 1..50. What are you chances of drawing an even number or an odd number as the first draw? Well, there are 25 evens and 25 odds. So it's 50% that you will draw an odd or even number. What are the chances you will draw ALL even or ALL odd? Very unlikely. You'll find that if you look at the history of that lottery game, that 2odd/3even is the most prevalent pattern. What if you break it down more? What if you took the 50 numbers and broke them down into three groups.. group A (17 balls 1..17), group B (17 balls 18..34), and group C (16 balls 35..50). Initially, the odds favor drawing a ball from group A or B, simply because there is one extra ball in each of those groups. Going against the odds, say a ball is drawn from group C. Now what are the odds of drawing a ball from group A or group B? Better, eh? By calculating how many number combinations are possible for each group, you can calculate the odds for each type being drawn on a given night. There are 21 different ways 5 numbers can be drawn from 3 different number groups. Moreover, you can time your bets. Going back to the odd/even theory, if you know that an all odd or all even drawing takes place on average about once every 1000 draws and that hasn't happened, the chance that this happens increases (even though it still remains small). The balls in the lottery drawings are physical things. When there are more odd, for example, these odd numbers bounce around and get in the way of the even numbers. Don't take my word for it. Examine as many previous drawings as possible and see how many all odd/even, 4 odd/1 even, 3 odd/2 even drawings there are. See how many times all five numbers appeared in the group A numbers and how many times it was distributed across the three groups. You may improve your odds by doing so.

In reply to RE: Re: New Jersey Lottery Probability by Anonymous Monk
in thread New Jersey Lottery Probability by ergowolf

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