Identical lottery draw

Posted by mathfail on September 18, 2009 Leave a comment (0) Go to comments

In Bulgaria’s national lottery, the same six winning numbers were drawn twice in a row. Minister Svilen Neikov ordered an investigation after the
numbers 4, 15, 23, 24, 35 and 42 were selected, in a different order,
by a machine live on television on September 6th and 10th. Some thought the results were manipulated, however after an investigation there was no wrongdoing found.

A total of 18 people got all six numbers when they were
drawn the second time and each got $7,700. Nobody guessed right the first draw.

Mathematicians say that the chance of drawing the same six numbers in two consecutive rounds is about 1 in 4.2 million.

The following website has some calculations dealing with lottery math and whether it’s better to play 50 dollars in one lottery, or play one dollar in fifty lotteries.

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