Lottery Prediction: Can Numbers Be Predicted?

Lottery Prediction. Credit: Patrick Feller @ Flickr[This is the continuation of a discussion about lottery prediction that originated on my reviews of lottery systems page. It was getting too long there so I’ve brought it over here to a new post for reply]

So Can Lottery Numbers Be Predicted?

We pick up this discussion about prediction with a comment left by Andy. Now, I’m NOT picking on Andy :-), it’s just that his comment is very typical of the way a lot of people think about systems and predicting numbers. So it’s a good comment for me to elaborate on in more detail.

So Andy, like a lot of people, is looking for a system that gives a better way of picking numbers – he’s tried a few, and found they don’t work. So I asked him why he thinks ANY system could pick better lottery numbers?

I’ll reply to Andy’s specific points as we go, hopefully that will make easier reading:-

Hi LG
I disagree with your opinion about the selection of lotto numbers.
I think lotto numbers can be predicted if we have a good system or strategy.

OK – but I wouldn’t describe it as my opinion. 🙂 It’s a logical conclusion based on the evidence, i.e. there is no evidence that prediction is possible. It has never been proven.
But I’ll get to why it’s not been proven and what that really means for lottery players shortly.

My opinion about it is as below:
1) I think lotto numbers can be predicted. Indeed lotto is a random chance game but it’s real science too in the view of mathematics. The reason that we have not yet found a good software is we have not yet had enough ability to design it, otherwise, the people who possess such software do not want to share it.

It’s not really about having enough ability, math knowledge or science knowledge – it’s more to do with lottery data and how much we can (or rather can’t) get our hands on.

There is a good example like the Weather Forecast. We have to admit that today’s accuracy of the weather forecast is much better than before. It depends on the progress of contemporary computer science (including the Artificial Intelligence and the Remote Sensing Technology) completely.

This is exactly what I mean by not having enough data. Weather prediction is based on lots of measurements of the current state of play. We can see where weather fronts are now, and know pretty reliably where they are going in the short term based on known factors.

In lottery terms that would be like taking a freeze frame a fraction of a second before a ball is drawn, and using the speed and direction of travel of each ball to attempt to predict which one is about to be drawn.

This is all perfectly scientific and very likely to help a lot. But the problem of course is that nobody is going to let you set up your laser tracking devices in the studio to monitor the lottery draw as it takes place. 🙂

Oh, and the ticket machines have already closed well before the draw started anyway. 🙂

So we will never have that much data to work with.

2) Saying lotto numbers can be predicted means that:

a. The lotto’s ODDS can be reduced down by our tools which include the paper & pen, Excel, software such C++, Java… etc, and even someone’s Mystical methods… The better the tool the lower the odds.

Yes, but sadly just saying it doesn’t make it real.

Theories are fine. But if we can’t prove them then they’re not quite so useful.

And if theories are not based on anything more than a ‘desire’ for it to be true, then they really aren’t useful at all. So there needs to be some ‘reason’ why a prediction theory makes sense in the real world. It’s not enough that it just sounds technical or desirable.

b. The meaning of PREDICTION is that we can win constantly (not each time!) and economically (get a real profit!) by using a system which is really working for lotto. Saying win means various prizes from the lowest to a jackpot.

This goes against the whole design of the game. Lots of people have to ‘lose’ in order for other people to win. (I say ‘lose’ but in my opinion the fun of playing means you never really lose).

So if it were possible to predict the next lottery numbers and win reliably, where would it leave us?

With an economically unviable game is where! That is, the lottery company goes bust because we all make a profit from playing.

Or maybe just the ‘select few’ will know ‘the secret’ and get to enjoy cheating the rest in what has become an unfair game..?

3) A good lotto software should follow the statistical law of randomness and chance in lotto games and replace the functions of the human brain including Statistical Calculation, the Forecast Analysis (similar to Artificial Intelligence), Optimized Feedback, and other operations.

Rabbity. Credit: sammydavisdog @ Flickr

You’re disappearing down the rabbit hole here. The sellers of prediction software want us to believe that all this complex sounding math stuff is the holy grail of predicting the results. But what is it really based on? What statistics or AI have any relevance at all to predicting lottery results?

Fundamentally what mechanism in the real world makes a lottery predictable? I’ll answer this myself shortly (we’re getting there!).

Some software has Statistical Calculation only but cannot make a good Forecast Analysis – like Gail Howard‘s Advantage Plus.

This is exactly my point. These artificial intelligence lottery software and prediction tools genuinely can do ‘clever math stuff’. They can show you all sorts of fascinating data and graphs.

But we need to go back to the ‘why’ again. Why does it make sense to apply that clever math.

If they can’t justify why they’re doing what they’re doing, doesn’t that make the forecast/prediction that comes from that data useless?

Or to look at it another way, if they also can’t prove that their statistical calculation helps – then what use is it?

It’s like the Emperors New Clothes. At some point, you have to say, “that guy is freakin’ naked!”. 🙂

Because it’s those statistics that aren’t any use, not the lack of knowing what to do with them.

Some software has so many Filters in which they include too many uncertainties to select like Expert Lotto. As Stan (the owner of Expert Lotto ) said: “The mistakes don’t come from my system, but you cannot select the Filters or the Settings correctly when the members are complaining”. What a real good excuse! In fact NO members, including Stan himself, can get any bigger win by using the Expert Lotto since it was created.

Yeah – those are just weasel words (sorry Stan, not picking on you directly either).

Do you know why they put so many filters and options in their prediction tools? It’s because whether they are a well-meaning seller of lottery software or not, it would be real easy to prove their software doesn’t work if it had nothing more than a ‘predict’ button.

Add lots of clever sounding mathematical tools, filters, levers and dials to create an infinite number of settings. And now it’s just your operator error that you didn’t get the right numbers out.

It’s just an illusion of number prediction (which you have seen through on this occasion).

Sometimes it might look like it works, most of the time it doesn’t. And that sounds an awful lot like plain old random luck, doesn’t it?

How To Predict Lottery Numbers?

You may think by now I’m completely trashing the whole idea of lottery prediction or predicting lottery numbers from past draws. But I’m not.

What I’m trashing is those people selling a lie.

The reality of lottery games is that they are (mostly) just tiny little balls bouncing around a big drum. A mechanical machine built by imperfect humans (see how are lottery numbers drawn).

So can that machine be perfectly made such that it is absolutely 100% guaranteed to be random?

No, it can’t.

The lottery companies are happy that their machines are random enough that we can’t reliably predict anything.

And I’d agree with that, as far as it goes.

So do you want to know how to predict the next lottery numbers?

Well, there’s enough wiggle room here for the possibility that mechanical bias exists within that system/draw machine. It’s likely to be small. So small you could never prove it to any statistical certainty (that ‘not enough data’ problem again).

Yet it exists.

Which makes it something we can attempt to look for. To try and gain some advantage.

So predicting lottery numbers from past draws is not completely wacky. It’s never going to turn any lottery game into a regular income. But that’s not the point – what we should all realistically be looking for are ways to maximize our chances of winning. And this can be part of that.

In Closing

Before this post turns into a book length essay, I’ll end it here by saying two things.

Firstly, it’s worth remembering that the lottery company do not want a predictable game. Because they need to run a fair and unpredictable game to ensure their continuing profits. There’s also the small matter of an unfair game being illegal…

So anything that looks predictable or non-random to their experts is going to trigger an instant full-scale internal audit.

Which does make it pretty unrealistic to expect that plugging a few formulas into an Excel spreadsheet could ever ‘beat the lottery’ (but remember, we don’t really want to ‘beat it’ – we just want to play it and eventually win).

And secondly, there is no solid evidence to prove that lottery games can be predicted (the bias would never be that big – if it could be proven they would close the game down or change the machinery!).

That’s despite how many years lottery games have been available, how long computers (and even supercomputers) have been available and the many, many thousands of people who swear it works.

Spock. Credit: JD Hancock @ FlickrThe world is full of genuinely brilliant scientific, engineering and mathematical minds who have not won the lottery (yet). Food for thought?

94 Comments so far ↓

  • Hugh Martin

    Sorry I’m not convinced AT ALL by the Liam explanation’s given for being Rigged! The methods given for the possible rigging of the ball’s is like living in the 50’s!

    It’s far better and more sophisticated than that.

    One question?
    How long have you worked for them?

  • John Canty

    I’ve been playing ever since they started the lottery. I been playing the same numbers over and over. I probably hit about three times out of 4-5 years. And right now if I was to hit it still won’t make up for the money I already spent. So my problem is can someone help me find some good numbers to play. Please help.

  • Billybill

    I agee about all these softwares being junk – simple reason THEY CANNOT see what we see or feel what we feel therefore what you get is 100’s of combinations based on your numbers you put in wheeled to best possible outcome if two constants hit.

    Heck I can do that on my own. Pick out my current hot groups of numbers using my charts, at least have 15 numbers now on seperate pieces of paper. Wheel key numbers, like maybe I see number 40 and number 19 in same pattern as before and they both compliment each other as in favorite pairs.

    So I see also last draw that very possibly a switch back to higher half, 30 – 42 but I wouldn’t hit all 6 I figured to have a double digit in 1st number slot and # 1 came in… however if I made my 15 plays for $30 I would have several tickets with 3 numbers or 4, and maybe 5 numbers which pays $1000.

    That’s what I’m focusing on, the lower prizes which are far easier to win than trying to hit pick 3 numbers which only pay $500. I could play 200 numbers daily for a month and never win! That’s $6000 dollars gone. How can I recover that loss?

    I also know how to gather the forces in the universe to train my brain to live my life as if I’m already wealthy!

    NO DEBT house in perfect shape and shiny new car in driveway.

    Laters all.

  • Judex

    Target 6 out of 40 on my Island.

    I have been analysing the results, and could not see any pattern to enable a proper prediction of the lotto results.

    I have reduced the numbers to half. For sometime, I regularly won 3 out of 6. After some months with winnings, I no longer win anything, except rarely a 3 out of 6. Buying a lot more combinations increases the chances, but it means throwing money in the drain for most people.

    The Law of probability may not be useful when there is no pattern to follow!

    I have one question: How on a small Island with a rather small population, does somebody win the jackpot nearly every 4 weeks!? 6 out of 40.

    Can Foreigners play the USA LOTTO?

    Cheers! Good Luck.

  • Romulo

    Lottery is a random game. If you are lucky, you could win.

    • Mickey Burgess

      If lottery is random, explain this . I get a lot of free tickets ( 2 numbers right) on Fantasy Five in Florida. When I go to cash them in, I always get some of the numbers on the ticket that was on the ticket I turned in. If I think I /have good numbers for the next draw , I cash in my free tickets after I play my tickets for the night. The computer always includes some of the numbers I picked for the draw.

      Weird, but true.

  • Josh

    People win ALL the time due to the amount of people playing and betting. Lottery is all about the Law of Large Numbers.

  • John

    If you’re relying on statistics and technology to win the lotto for you and spending thousands to hit big just once, how much have you really won? Hmmmmm get real people! luck L-U-C-K! is what its all about, oh yea fun too!

  • Felecia Purnell

    I need a three digit powerful number a four digit powerful number a Powerball powerful number and a Mega Millions powerful number.

  • Alun

    Hi, I have been reading the comments on here about number prediction. I do understand randomness in numbers and how “impossible” it is to actually predict the next number in a sequence.

    However, in my approach, I take a slightly different angle on prediction. I have noticed from time to time that numbers for a lottery ball quite often form a (rough) sine wave when plotted – i.e. if a number is quite low for that ball, the next one will be higher and then lower, higher, etc.. So, my approach is to do a visual prediction on a graph of roughly where the ball is likely to drop in a range of numbers. E.g. If the last few values drawn were 28, 18, 26, 17, 30 (for ball 3 EuroMillions a few weeks back) – then I would look at the chart at numbers below 30 (expecting the next one to be lower), then select a random number in the area where it “looks” like dropping following the wave pattern. Lo & behold, the next number was 23!

    Even if the numbers do not form a sine-like wave, you can still visualise where the next number “should” go even by just tracing my finger along the curves and seeing where my finger logically wants to go next! (Is that laughter I hear?) I have been very close on many occasions with my predicted numbers being 1, 2 or 3 out or bang on the money. Sometimes, of course, it defies my finger logic and goes where no lottery ball should… but that’s the “…%*&@ that shouldn’t have happened …” moment.

    I have put all of this into a windows program which tells me where it “believes” the next ball will land – usually a range of 5 – 8 numbers and then it selects a random number within that range. I only look at the last 15 draws to get a handle of the wave and it selects the correct “next area” around 60%-75% of the time. So instead of tring to predict 5 numbers out of 50, its predicting 1 number in 6 or 7 possible numbers for each of the 5 balls. I’m not sure I would call it a system but just a different approach.

    • LG

      Interesting approach for sure, but I can’t help wondering if this is very close to that old friend “it seems to work”. Which usually translates into being all too close to ‘stuff that just happens in randomness’.

      The other way to look at it is – why would the numbers behave in this way, what about the way the balls bounce around in that plastic drum would cause this effect.

      Sounds fun though.

    • Greg

      I agree with the sine wave (or similar) analogy, it seems that in a fair game, that the number occurrences will tend to even out over time so it gives the impression of a wave-like “motion” as some numbers tend to “catch up” so that given the draw history one would think that the wave “period” could be extracted and provide groups of likely numbers that can be selected to reduce the number of combinations required to win a prize. At the moment, I’m trying a different approach as I don’t have the math skills yet to determine that statistical wave length, currently, I’m wheeling all 45 numbers (Australian Tattslotto) with a 2 from 6 guarantee giving me 22 games (AUD$16/week), although you need a minimum of three numbers to win something, this has won one or two of the lowest three divisions in nearly half the draws on average (since Nov 2022 when I started using this method) (18 wins out of 34 games) although the prize isn’t enough in most cases to cover the ticket cost, it does offset the cost of playing while I try other experiments which is a lot of fun! I don’t know if my wheel is optimal (I used an old Covermaster program to generate it) so it is possible that a more economical wheel could do better, but an algorithm that would provide similar results with fewer combinations (i.e. a smaller pool of numbers to wheel) would get me closer to my goal of frequent small wins that return more than the cost of entry!

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