[A] There are lots of interesting things you can do with old lottery results. You can apply all sorts of analysis on past results, and come up with lots of intriguing things.

Even the lottery companies do it themselves. Many official lottery sites have things like lottery frequency checker tools on them, so you can see how often each ball has been drawn.

But the problem with this kind of analysis, is that it’s entirely useless in predicting what’s going to happen next.

Here’s why…

Lottery Randomness Looks Weird

I know this sounds a bit Douglas Adams but the big problem with randomness is that it can often look so very unrandom.

For something to be truly random, all results have to be possible.

So for there to be any significance in some numbers appearing more often than others, there must by definition be something wrong with the draw process. In others words it isn’t random.

Yes, that’s theoretically possible - but bear in mind lottery companies put an awful lot of effort into ensuring their draws are random.

By all means fire up your Excel spreadsheet, plug in all the past results, and make charts of hit frequency. If you find that kind of stuff fun.

(No offence intended - I’m a maths and probability geek!)

But please don’t be fooled into thinking this kind of analysis will increase your chances of winning the lottery.

It won’t do your chances of winning any harm to play this way, it just won’t improve them any either.

For more help with winning and real stuff you can do to improve your odds, get my free lottery tips course.

Click here to add your comment to this post...

Source: The Lottery Number Frequency Myth

The content of this post is copyright.

Every day I see another crazy claim about how certain results can never happen on the lottery. Or how you can avoid unlikely combinations, and other such total rubbish.

Well stick this story in your pipe and smoke it all you sellers of those crazy lottery systems!

Same Six Numbers Two Lottery Draws In A Row

On 6th September the numbers 4, 15, 23, 24, 35 and 42 were drawn on the Bulgaria lottery.

Then, the very next draw on 10th September exactly the same numbers were drawn again!

Eeeek! Impossible craziness right?

But the draw was live on Bulgarian TV. And it wasn’t one of those computer based draws, it was a normal lottery draw machine with balls tumbling around in a drum.

So did Derrren Brown fix the result? Is it some mass conspiracy to undermine trust in the Bulgarian lottery? Have aliens landed and taken over Bulgaria?

No. No. And probably not.

So How Can This Happen?

Let’s flip the question and look at it this way.

If it was impossible for the previous numbers to be drawn again, would that be a truly random lottery draw? If number 4 was less likely to come out because it appeared last time, would that really be random?

Think carefully here.

Randomness can look very odd sometimes. Especially to our highly ordered, pattern loving brains.

The truth is that it’s perfectly normal for things like this to happen when something is totally random.

It is theoretically possible there is something very wrong with the set of balls used. But a lot of checks and measures would have to fail for that to be the case.

Yes, Svilen  Neykov (Sports Minister) was right to order a review. But don’t be at all surprised to find the review finds nothing at all out of the ordinary.

What Can We Take Away From This?

If you look hard enough for patterns in past results, you will find them. But analysing past results will not help you predict lottery numbers.

(If you enjoy analysing lottery results and playing around with spreadsheets, that’s cool with me. I quite like a spreadsheet myself. But please try and avoid jumping to the wrong conclusion and making claims that simply aren’t true.)

UPDATE: The commission concluded their investigation and found no evidence of fraud or manipulation, and no wrongdoing. Surprise!

Click here to add your comment to this post...

Source: Repeat Lottery Numbers In Bulgaria!

The content of this post is copyright.

I think we’ve given enough publicity and space over to Mr Brown.

And apart from which Derren fans will shortly all be moving on to talking about how he made them feel stuck to their sofa..! (Control The Nation hits tonight… and I very much suspect he hasn’t just bought a job lot of superglue)

The Trick Explained

So, here’s a great little video that demonstrates the secrets of how the whole split screen camera trick thing works. For anyone still not sure, yes, it was just a trick:-

Watch Closely, See The Trick Revealed…

And if you found that a bit of a let down after all the build up of the ‘predicting lottery numbers’ malarkey, then this alternative explanation should give you some minor chuckle relief:-

Click here to add your comment to this post...

Source: Derren Brown Lottery Explained

The content of this post is copyright.

He entertained as usual - the guy is a great showman - but he didn’t actually tell us how the trick was done. All was NOT revealed. Which is fine. Except that is exactly what we were promised!

He did of course misdirect and entertain, which is the nature and fun of the show.

Derren tells a small group of people they can predict lottery numbers, and they become genuinely impressed at being ‘one out’. Being one out is also known as being wrong of course. Nobody wins a prize for nearly matching a number! (But even letting them get ‘close’ is pure Derren at work of course)

The important facts to remember are:-

1. Derren is not a psychic or mystic (he actually debunks people who claim to be!)
2. Derren cannot predict lottery results, it’s simply not possible.
3. It’s a trick, that’s what he does.

Derren ended the show as ‘whatever you choose to believe is up to you’, but we were cheated on the promise of him giving us the real answer. And that was an unusually flat and diasappointing ending to the illusion.

There was no ‘reveal’ and then further twist to leave us confounded and impressed.

Instead we’re simply left with the reality of ‘oh, so it was just a cheap camera trick then’.

Shame.

Click here to add your comment to this post...

Source: Derren Brown Lottery - How It Was Really Done

The content of this post is copyright.

He got all 6 correct.

Or did he…

Derren is a brilliant entertainer, and worth seeing live on stage if ever you get the chance.

But remember, he is an illusionist and entertainer. He doesn’t really have magic powers, any more than David Blaine, Uri Geller or Paul Daniels.

All will be revealed on Friday night.

So how do you think he did it?

Click here to add your comment to this post...

Source: Derren Brown - How To Win The Lottery?

The content of this post is copyright.

And not just the biggest jackpot ever for the EuroMillions - but the biggest jackpot in the world won by one single winner.

So Who Won?

That winner has been revealed as a 25 year old woman living in Majorca, who is now about €126 Million richer. Her name has not been revealed (and very wise too - folks, when you win big decline the publicity unless you want your life to become a complete circus!).

It’s a real shame that money wasn’t split over lots of different winners. After all, what can you do with €126 Million that you can’t do with €10 Million?!

Although according to the UK Telegraph newspaper, it does make her instantly richer than the Bee Gees!

Winning Numbers

Those winning EuroMillions numbers were 4, 29, 23, 31, 24 and Lucky Stars 9 and 8.

Get your tickets for the next EuroMillions draw now.

Click here to add your comment to this post...

Source: EuroMillions Winner Scoops World Record Jackpot (8 May 2009)

The content of this post is copyright.

This Friday (8th May) sees the jackpot reach an enormous 123 Million Euros. The third largest in the history of EuroMillions.

Ticket sales will reach FOUR times a normal week for EuroMillions, with peaks of up to two and a half million tickets an hour.

World’s Biggest Lottery Winner?

If one winner were to scoop the jackpot, they would instantly go down in history as the biggest lottery winner in the world.

Previous huge jackpots have (thankfully) been shared between multiple winners. After all, nobody really needs 123 Million to themselves, do they!?

Share The Pot Of Gold

Imagine 123 jackpot winners all taking home a million each. Or how about 23 individual winners plus 2 lottery syndicates of 50 people each. Everybody gets a million. Better?

But if you want to play, don’t wait, those lottery terminals will be crazy busy closer to the draw time.

You can play online here in my favourite EuroMillions syndicate.

Click here to add your comment to this post...

Source: NEWS: EuroMillions 3rd Biggest Jackpot Ever

The content of this post is copyright.

Glimmer Of Hope..?

To be fair this is the first glimmer of any sense from Xzotto. But I do just mean glimmer so don’t get excited yet folks. On the face of it you would be forgiven for thinking it’s a cool idea.

So What is Floating 5

Well the deal is you pay $30 to join, plus $25 per month - same as before. Plus $4 or $5 per month ticket costs as you have to buy tickets to be included in Floating 5.

Now if a Xzotto members ticket wins, they get to keep 50% of the prize (I know, but stay with me here…). Then 35% goes to the 7 people above them.

Finally three lots of 5% are randomly given to someone else. The 5% bits are Floating 5.

Somewhat Confusing, So Is That Good Then..?

Well, this now makes it a lottery within a lottery (still not a lottery pool!). So if someone else wins, now you play another lottery to see if you win any of their prize money.

So if (as I’m told) there are 3,000 members, that means if one of them wins, then you have a 3-in-3000 chance of getting 5% of their prize. Because there are 3 of those 5% bits and 3000 members who could be chosen. Which is the same as a 1-in-1000 chance.

Just a Bit More Mega Millions Maths…

Now normally the Mega Millions jackpot is odds of 1-in-175 million (so not a good game to choose anyway). And my calculator says that the chances of both a Xzotto Member hitting the jackpot AND you then getting a 5% share of it is therefore 1-in-60 Million.

Disappointed!

Which is actually the same increase in chances as buying 3 tickets yourself…

Except 3 tickets per draw would cost you half as much. And you’d get to keep all of the prize instead of just 5%…

[Now before some bright spark says "but as more members join the chances of one of them winning the lottery increases..." - maybe so, BUT the chances of you actually getting a 5% share get worse at the same time as there are more members it could go to! So overall it doesn't improve.]

Is Floating 5 the genius it claims to be? Does it revolutionise Xzotto and make it a superb lottery pool?

Answers on a postcard to:- Why Does Xzotto Still Suck, Xzotto, Cloud Cuckoo Land, USA.

Click here to add your comment to this post...

Source: Xzotto Launches Floating 5 (Still Sucks…)

The content of this post is copyright.

A friend recommended it to them, but they wanted to get an expert opinion before spending any money… so can you guess my opinion yet..? 

They say it’s a lottery pool. Well, actually they don’t say that, but their members tend to!

The site actually says:-

create a lottery pool that reaches across the street or around the world

Note the vital use of the word ‘create’…

Xzotto Misses The Point By Impressive Margins!

I think somewhere in the design stage sombebody lost the plot.

Here’s what I mean.

As a lottery player I want to win the lottery.

As an enlightened lottery player, I know those junk systems based on analysing past results are a waste of money.

So I’m really looking for a better chance of winning. Cool, that’s the idea of a lottery pool.

So what does Xzotto offer?

You join for free. You buy your lottery tickets through them at normal price. You don’t get any pooling of tickets. You only get to keep 50% of your winnings.

Huh?

Seriously. No increase to your chances of winning, and you lose half your winnings.

That is what you really get, I’ve checked with them!

But that’s not a lotto pool?

Yeah, I know!

It’s also WORSE than buying a ticket at your local store.

YEAH, I KNOW!

So What’s All This Monthly Subscription Stuff About Then?

In short - it’s one of those business opportunity things. You pay US$25 per month for the ‘Team Management Software’.

Yes, US$300 per year. Forever.

And yes, this sounds an awful lot like just the software needed to run the business opportunity itself…

You still don’t get any lottery tickets or pooling for that. But you do get US$5 a month for all the other people you get to subscribe to the software.

And if the people you introduce, and the people they introduce also buy tickets - note the ‘IF’ - then you get to keep some of their winnings.

But That Sucks Too, Doesn’t It!?

Pretty much.

Suck Reason 1
US$25 per month (forever) is a lot to pay for ANY software. Even Microsoft failed to sell subscriptions to it’s full blown Office software at only US$69 per YEAR. And if you really want software to manage a lottery pool, use a spreadsheet, free!

Suck Reason 2
It’s still not a lottery pool. You have to build your own pool by introducing other people. If you wanted to do that, why bother with Xzotto?

So Why Join?

Xzotto has generated a few thousand members. No, I don’t how either.

I suspect they have all been sucked in by the premise of ‘making a quick buck’, so the lottery side is totally irrelevant to them. They could be subscribing to a Zac Efron fan club for all they care.

But if any Xzotto players can explain why Suck Reasons 1 and 2 are wrong, please do comment below.

Seriously. Open debate. But please don’t just say “I hate you, you don’t understand” like a sullen teenager.

Do you think you get value for money? Is the software genuinely of value, and worth that much? Or is it just acceptable losses until you find enough other people you want to put in the same position… (house of cards style)!?

Click here to add your comment to this post...

Source: Xzotto Sucks - Here’s Why…

The content of this post is copyright.

When picking lottery numbers you should NEVER pick the numbers that were drawn last week, because there is no chance they will be drawn this week…

Fact

Last weeks numbers still have EXACTLY the same chance of being drawn as every other combination! (Crazy huh)

Reason

I know it sounds logical at first. Who ever heard of the same numbers being picked twice in a row? Never happened right?

But the reality is it could happen.

Yeah, OK, so it could - but it’s still far less likely than other numbers, right..?

No!

It’s EXACTLY as likely as all the other numbers. Or to put it another way, it’s exactly as UNlikely as all the other possible results.

(Because all combinations are unlikely anyway. That’s the nature of a lottery, there are millions of combinations. So everything is unlikely.)

We Did WHAT Last Week..?!

You see there is no ‘memory effect’ here.

Those little balls have no brains, so they don’t know what happened last week. They just bounce around and pop out again without the slightest idea of what last weeks numbers were.

Don’t Believe The Hype

This myth is exactly the sort of thing those junk lottery systems use to take your money.

We’ll eliminate all those nasty unlikely combinations so you get a better chance of winning…

It’s a nice claim. But sadly it just isn’t true.

So when it comes to picking lottery numbers, excluding past results will NOT help your chances of winning. Right?

Click here to add your comment to this post...

Source: Picking Lottery Numbers - Myth 1

The content of this post is copyright.