OK, first some quick background. Brad Duke was a Powerball winner back in 2005. He won the headline grabbing Powerball jackpot of $220 Million, and after choosing the lump sum payout he more than happily banked $85 Million.

In an interview with Fortune Magazine in 2007 Brad revealed the incredible lottery system that was responsible for his big win.

Don’t worry, I’ll reveal exactly how it works right here.

Here’s what Brad did.

The Brad Duke Lottery System

First he took the last 6 months of Powerball results. Then he figured out the 15 most commonly drawn numbers from those results.

Then he used a wheeling system to combine those 15 numbers together.

In a nutshell, that’s it.

Here’s what is missing from Brad’s explanation though.

Firstly, he doesn’t tell us what kind of wheel he is playing. Is it an abbreviated wheel (potentially fairly cheap), or a full wheel (very expensive indeed for 15 numbers!). He also doesn’t tell us if he’s playing one Powerball number or covering all of them!

Secondly, he doesn’t say how many tickets he’s buying.

You can deduce from his comments though what the likely answer is when he says things ‘got bigger and more complex’.

So he actually started buying a lot more tickets, and as a result won more small prizes.

This, of course, is not a revolutionary lottery system. (Win Lotto Systems is based on the simple premise of ‘buy more tickets, and win more small prizes, while you wait for a big win’).

The Numbers Bit

If you play Brad’s system, you may want to arrange yourself a bank loan first…

Because even if you ignore the Powerball number, there are still 3,003 ways to arrange your 15 most drawn numbers. Cover every Powerball number on top of those and you’ve just bought over 105,000 tickets… feeling rich yet..?

So if for one very charitable moment we assume that analysing those past results actually worked, you still have to either stomach spending $210,000 on Powerball tickets and hoping you’re right – or choose a small amount of those combinations and hope you don’t eliminate the winning one.

Did Brad buy $210,000 of tickets for that draw? No.

Does playing the 15 most drawn numbers from the last 6 months even improve your chances of winning one jot anyway? No.

The Reality Check

The important thing to learn from Brad’s story, is this.

Brad Duke won the Powerball because… he was damn lucky. One of the hundreds(?) of tickets he bought for that draw just happened to be the winning combination.

Now he may believe that combination was more likely to come up. But that doesn’t make it true.

Remember: if the lottery was preditable in this way, it would not be random. And that would put the well paid Powerball Execs in a whole heap of legal trouble – illegal lotteries are not well liked by the legal system!

Still don’t believe me?

Think of it this way. Every week millions of players all over the world do similar analysis, over all kinds of different time periods – but never win!

That very same draw when Brad won the jackpot, hundreds of thousands of Powerball tickets would have been bought by people doing similar analysis to him.

So why didn’t they all share the jackpot? Because they weren’t lucky like Brad Duke!

Back To The Question…

So the idea of strong or weak lottery numbers is a total nonsense. They just don’t exist. There are winners and losers – but we only discover which ones those are after the draw is over and done.

Despite that, there are endless pointless lottery systems that are based entirely on analyzing past results. Do they work? No.

There is no secret formula to guaranteed winnings. No winner who can tell you the secret to how to pick the best numbers.

There is a very limited range of things you can do to improve your chances of winning (and I’ll happily give you those lottery tips and tricks for free).

But does that stop the lottery being fun to play? Of course not.

Good luck in the next draw, however you pick your numbers.

Related posts:

1. $50 Million Australian Powerball Jackpot – Largest Ever!
2. EuroMillions Winner Scoops World Record Jackpot (8 May 2009)
3. Best Lottery System To Use…

So with thanks to Hobbs for hitting the nail squarely on the head again, here’s a guest post from him about which is the best lottery system to use.

Wisdom Of Hobbs Part 1

To your attention folks. One random event is not effected by another. There is no such thing as elimination of any number with any new lottery drawing. Each number has an equal chance of being drawn.

If there was a way to select numbers that were more likely for the next drawing, that would make wheeling systems highly effective.

There is no lottery system in existence that will reduce the number of possible combinations that can be drawn in any particular game, what it is, is what it is. If it’s 14 million possible combinations, that is what it is.

Don’t bother spending hundreds of dollars on Steve Player’s horse manure that he charges hundreds of dollars by the pound for. He plays well on the cravings of those that see big dollar signs in their eyes while reading the ads on the systems that he has for sale, only to end up wondering what happened after their pockets have been cleaned out and discovering that the systems don’t work. After discovering that they’ve been had, they seek a refund. To their amazement, there is none…

Don’t bother with the Black Book and getting shot in the leg. You may bleed to death or end up with a limp for the rest of your life, while rushing because there are only so many copies left. If you stand behind a horse long enough at a distance, you’ll see what comes out of the Black Book. The Lotto Black Book is absolute rubbish.

Ken Silver makes his silver sound so shiny and brilliant. After you fall for it and use it, you’ll discover that the silver isn’t so shiny and brilliant, but tarnished.

So which is the best lottery system to use? All the systems that are for sale depend on the word ‘IF’. If… in the lottery rarely happens. If is a small word, but has large significance. Folks, don’t fall for it, save your money.

The only sure way to win the lottery is to play every possible combination in that particular game. If you have 14 million dollars to spend, why spend it on a chance to win 2 million dollars.

Have a great day everybody. Thanks Lottery Guy.

Related posts:

1. Derren Brown Reveals Secret Of Lottery System Scams
2. Powerball Winner Brad Duke’s Lottery System
3. Lottery System Reviews

Because you might just as well be feeding your money into a slot machine.

The best you can ever hope for with most Pick 3 games is a fairly small win.

And that’s the big prize!

But those lower tier prizes arrive regular enough to keep you playing… after all, you won again this week right..?

What happens to those small wins? They’re so small, they just go back in the machine.

You Never Really Win With Pick 3

But you never win big, because there simply is no big with the Pick 3 lottery.

Sure, you can play Pick 3 just for fun. But if you’re playing for the jackpot, then you’re playing the wrong game.

For most players, one of the main reasons to play the lottery is the chance of that ‘big win’. The life changing jackpot.

Pick 3 type games can never give you that.

So What Can You Do?

The real way to win the Pick 3 lottery, is to stop playing it and choose a better game.

[They won't advise you to do that at the lottery counter of course, or in those trashy Pick 3 lottery systems either]

But take your typical Pick 5 or 6 game. Not only do they have life changing jackpots pretty much every week. These games also have plenty of those smaller prizes too.

Now the odds are going to be tougher than they are with Pick 3 for similar smaller prizes, but they won’t be radically different.

But what you really gain is the chance of winning the bigger prizes too – at no extra cost.

The Right Game Can Make The Difference Between Winning & Losing

Wisely choosing the right game to play (for you) is the most important step any lottery player can take.

So how do you choose a better game to play?

Get my free lottery tips – and I’ll show you how exactly how, and take you through specific examples.

Don’t just play what looks the shiniest, or has the biggest jackpot when you reach the lottery terminal. Because that doesn’t make it the best game for you.

Related posts:

1. Which Lottery Has The Best Odds Of Winning?
2. Lottery Advice – What’s Your Game?
3. Which UK Lotto Game Has The Best Chances Of Winning?

Enthusiastic ‘Lost’ fans who played the numbers collected $150 each.

The ‘Lost’ numbers are a set of numbers made significant by cropping up in various guises throughout the series. But most significantly appearing in an episode called ‘Numbers’ in the 1st season of the show back in 2005. The numbers 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42 win a jackpot in a flashback sequence for character Hurley.

Now the problem is that ‘Lost’ was hugely popular. That one episode alone was seen when broadcast by 18.8 million people in the US alone.

So it should come as no real surprise to find more than 25,587 people won the $150 prize in that draw.

Now, not all of those people necessarily played the ‘Lost’ numbers but given that a 3+1 match on Mega Millions typically pays out around 3,000 people – it seems there’s a lot of dumb people out there!

Why?

Because if the ‘Lost’ numbers ever hit the jackpot, you can expect to be sharing the prize with around 20,000 other ‘lucky’ winners.

On the other hand, those with a little more originality shared the jackpot of $380 Million… between the two of them!

The ‘Lost’ obsessives would be looking at a life changing sum of around $19,000 each.

Change your numbers guys!

Related posts:

1. Are Winning Lottery Numbers Repeated?
2. Picking Better Lottery Numbers… Or Not!
3. Picking Lottery Numbers – Myth 1

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!

Related posts:

1. Should I Play The Same Lottery Numbers In Every Draw?
2. Picking Better Lottery Numbers… Or Not!
3. Can Anyone Predict What Lottery Numbers Will Be Drawn..?

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:-

[P.S. If you want to know how Derren does his crazy mind trick voodoo check out this video]

Related posts:

1. Derren Brown Lottery – How It Was Really Done
2. Derren Brown – How To Win The Lottery?
3. Derren Brown Reveals Secret Of Lottery System Scams

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.

Related posts:

1. Xzotto Sucks – Here’s Why…
2. Are My Chances Of Winning Worse With Lottery Quick Picks?

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)!?

Related posts:

1. Xzotto Launches Floating 5 (Still Sucks…)
2. Love My Lotto?
3. Play EuroMillions Now… Before Tonights Crush!

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?

Related posts:

1. Picking Better Lottery Numbers… Or Not!
2. Are Winning Lottery Numbers Repeated?
3. The Lottery Number Frequency Myth

Just today I came across another ‘system’ teaching people to predict lottery numbers by using ‘lottery sums’. What do they mean by using sums for the lottery?

In a nutshell the expert idiot writer meant adding up groups of past numbers, and making silly conclusions about them…

You sum (or ‘add’) the first two numbers, then the second and third groups of two numbers. Then you look at what range the sum totals fall into, and lo and behold based on the last 87 years results from the Albanian Mega-Super-De-Dooper Lotto… there is a pattern..!

Here’s why lottery sums are so dumb:-

1. If you apply completely made up calculations with no logic behind them to sets of numbers in a fixed range – there will always be patterns, because the numbers are in a fixed range!
2. It’s like looking at clouds and making faces, except cloud pictures are fun and not totally dumb…
3. Past results!? What the heck have past results got to do with it anyway. Are you really claiming that the little balls have a life of their own and remember what happened before?
4. Just because they try and use complicated sounding maths terms like ‘standard deviation’ does NOT make them clever or right!
5. It’s like saying ‘pick only numbers between x and y because 70% of the past results are in that range’ – yeah, great, that’s because 70%  of any possible result is in that range too! What about the other 30%!?

Of course this kind of dumb analysis makes absolutely no difference at all to your chances of winning. Thankfully it can’t make your chances any worse, but I guarantee it will NOT improve them either.

Hey, I just saw a cute little dog face in last nights lottery results…

Related posts:

1. Don’t Miss The EuroMillions Superdraw Jackpot This Friday…
2. $50 Million Australian Powerball Jackpot – Largest Ever!
3. NEWS: EuroMillions 3rd Biggest Jackpot Ever