The anticipation building up towards today’s Powerball drawing, with its $1.5 billion jackpot, understandably has the nation buzzing. Of course, it goes without saying that the odds of anyone person winning the lottery are absolutely astronomical, or one in 292 million if you want to be precise.
DON’T MISS: How much of the $1.5 billion Powerball jackpot you actually get to take home
For anyone unfamiliar, the way the Powerball drawing is structured is pretty straight-forward. Players pick 5 numbers ranging from 1 through 69. They then pick a sixth number that ranges between 1 and 26. Seems simple enough, but with so many possible permutations, you probably have a better chance of getting hit by an asteroid or even becoming a billionaire naturally.
While the Powerball drawing is random, one statistician conducted research a few years back and allegedly found a pattern which, according to his claims, might increase a person’s odds of winning ever so slightly.
According to Dr. Min Su Kim, who teaches statistics at Southern University, a close examination of Powerball winning numbers over a period of 10 years revealed a pattern.
The Powerball drawing consists of five white balls and one red Powerball. Dr. Kim went back 10 years and found the top 5 numbers that have won millions of dollars for thousands of people. Dr. Kim says the most frequently drawn Powerball number for the past 10 years is number 20. It is followed by 37, 2, 31, and 35.
As for those white balls, the most popular is number 42. It is closely followed by 16, 35, 26, and 19.
“If you pick these numbers, there’s probably more probability to win the grand prize,” Dr. Kim says.
This seems like a bizarre and patently false claim for a statistician to make, but then again, if you’re hoping against hope that you might win the lottery, odds are that you probably don’t mind a little bit of “science” that goes against the grain.
Interestingly, other studies which claim to chart the most frequently drawn Powerball numbers have reached different conclusions, in part because the Powerball rules changed slightly in 2012.
For instance, LottoNumbers’ own study found that the most frequently picked Powerball numbers are 20 and 6. The most frequently picked white ball numbers are 26, 41, 16, 22, 42, 35, and 39. So there is some interesting overlap there, specifically with numbers 16, 35, and 26.
As for white Powerball numbers which have popped up the most since 2012, the following chart should come in handy.
The list of most common red Powerball numbers under the new 2012 rules is as follows.
Powerball numbers which are supposedly long overdue to come up, according to some outlets, include 3, 24, 51, 8, and 23. Again, we can’t stress how bogus these ‘stats’ are because any number that hasn’t been chosen in a while stands no greater chance of being chosen in the future. Though I suppose if you’re playing a game with astronomical odds in the first place, it’s more about having fun than truly ‘playing the odds.’
That being said you might as well try Hurley’s magical lotto numbers from LOST: 4,8,15,16,23 and 42.
For the most comprehensive look at which numbers are drawn the most frequently over any given period of time, make sure to head on over to Powerball’s official website and have a poke around.
