Lotto Database Blog

We would like to be one of the first to introduced our new sister website, chosennumbers.com

This website has a unique approach in providing lottery numbers to players. Most websites which allows players to pick lottery numbers are doing so in the same manner - random selection of numbers.

Chosennumbers.com is different. The website maintains a running index of all the lotteries numbers and chooses the next available number for the player systematically.

The best way to explain the logic of this approach is to check out the Why page for an interactive demo.

We hope this approach to chosing lottery numbers will become popular

---

Lotteries are fun to play. Especially if you win occassionally. Here are some interesting and fun facts about lotteries.

What If Only Person Is Playing the Lottery

What happens if you are the only person playing the lotteries?

Will it increase your chances of winning?

Well, it depends on the lottery.

If you play the Canadian lottery, Lotto 649, there is a guaranteed winner every draw. One random player wins the $1,000,000 dollar guaranteed-winner prize, or the gold ball prize of starting $10,000,000. If you happen to be the only person playing, you would walk away with well over $104 Million a year (assuming your were the only player for an entire year). But chances are, you are not the only one playing this game.

Other lotteries use a percentage of the income to generate the winnings. If you are the only player, then the jackpot will only increase by small amounts. Could you imagine a jackpot of 54 cents?

However, most lotteries it doesn't matter if you are the only player, or there are multiple players, the odds of winning are the same, which is slim. Check out the various Canadian or American lotteries on our site to see those chances.

Difference between American and Canadian Lotteries

There are some major differences between American and Canadian lotteries. Check out our difference between American and Canadian Lotteries article.

Unusual Sequence of Numbers

South Africa has it own lottery equivalent to the PowerBall. On December 1, 2020, a draw occurred which was so unique that it warranted an investigation. The numbers which were drawn were 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and a Powerball of 10.

5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10

Amazing!

You can view this draw (draw number 1151) at Ithuba Lottery YouTube channel

For those who are interested, there were 20 Winners of the R114 Million Jackpot. Also, the order the computer generated balls fell were 8, 5, 9, 7, 6 and Bonus 10

The African Powerball game is played with the main balls ranging from 1 to 50, with the Powerball being 1 to 20

Lotteries are games of chances. What are the chances of that happening?

Well, the odds would be the same as for any sequence, and that is 1 in 105,938,000

---

The major national lotteries of the US and Canada are played by millions of wanna-be millionaires weekly. Both countries present millions of dollars to winners.

However, the rules and laws surrounding these lotteries of these two countries are not quite the same.

We have compiled a comprehensive list of the differences between Canadian and American lotteries.

Taxes

One of the biggest differences between Canadian and American lotteries is taxes.

Lottery winnings in Canada are tax exempt.

That means, if you win one million dollars in a Canadian lottery, you are given a cheque for one million dollars.

If you deposit the cheque into a bank, it is still tax exempt. However, any interest you start to accumulate on your winnings will be taxed.

American lottery winners need to pay taxes on their winnings.

25% for federal tax, and state taxes (anywhere between 0 and 13.9%).

So for an American who wins $1,000,000 in New York, the amount they receive after taxes could be as low as $662,000 ($250,000 Federal taxes, $88,000 State taxes).

If you happen to be a non-resident of the States, then instead of 25% federal tax, it would be 30% federal tax and applicable State taxes.

Jackpot and Payout Options

In Canada, the advertised jackpot is what you win.

If you happen to win $70 Million in the Lotto MAX draw, you receive a tax-free cheque for $70 Million dollars.

In the US, the advertised jackpot is the payout if you choose the annuity option.

The winner has a choice of a lump sum payout, or a annuity payout over 29 years (for Powerball). An example of the difference is with a $228 Million dollar winner. As a lump sum payout, the winner would have received $134 Million. The annuity option gives the winner $228,467,735 paid out over 30 annuity payments.

Megamillions has a similar annuity option except it goes over 26 annual payments.

The above example for the Powerball win did not factor in taxes. With taxes, the advertised $228 Million could come in at $151 Million, and the lump sum would be $88,000,000 after taxes.

Number of Players

The United States has a higher population than Canada. As such, there are more people playing the lotteries in the United States as opposed to Canada.

The population of the United States is 327 million. Canada is 37 million.

Some statistics show that approximately 18% of adults play lotteries once a week or more. 58% buy tickets at least once a year. (see sources for stats).

A large percent of people buy tickets only when the jackpot is significant. Significant is subjective based on the lottery.

Jackpots grow significantly larger in the US because the odds of winning are significantly lower.

Time to Claim

Most Canadian lotteries can claim their prizes within 1 year of purchasing their ticket.

Many American lotteries, you have 180 days to claim your prize.

Depending on the payout option chosen by the winner(s), you may need to claim your prize in as little as 60 days.

Cross Border Playing

When the national lotteries in the US and Canada hit larger than normal jackpots, there is a increase in lottery sales. Many of these sales are from cross border shoppers who happen to notice the draws, or specifically cross the border in order to buy tickets.

Players continue to buy tickets when they are on holidays or business trips. Who wouldn't want to be that individual who makes the news for winning a cross-border jackpot. It has never been done before.

At some retailers close to the border, between 60 to 95 percent of the buyers came from across the border. In this particular case, it was with the Powerball $1.5 Billion draw on January 13, 2016.

There are specific laws pertaining to lottery tickets and crossing the borders. It is a controversial topic, with cases of tickets being seized at the border. More can be viewed in this CTV article.

American vs Canadian Dollar

The American dollar and the Canadian dollar are rarely equivalent to one another. Over the past 10 years, the American dollar has always been stronger. At the time of writing this article, one US dollar equals 1.33 Canadian dollars. This difference effects everything from the price of a lottery ticket to the total amount of jackpot winnings, comparing the dollar values.

---

Here are some tips every player of lotteries should follow. Most of us do these everytime, but some of us only do it when we have a winning ticket.

Sign It

Print or legibly sign your name on the ticket as soon as possible after your purchase.

Check It

Always check your ticket against the winning numbers after the draw.

Draw results are available at the following locations:

1. Television (Live): Many draws are televised live. Just tuned in and watch the draw live.
2. Television (News): Many News outlets have a spot during their news segments where they televise lottery numbers. After a big draw has been won, the media outlets finds out. The lotteries usually disclose which community or city the winning ticket was sold. There are then local news features within that city or community.
3. Website (News): Many News outlets have their own websites. After a big draw has been won, the News outlets provide information on their websites of the win.
4. Phone In: Many communities have a dial-in service which plays a recording of recent lottery results.
5. YouTube: Many lotteries publish their results on their YouTube Channel (usually the same live feed that was available on television).
6. Website: The website for the lottery will have the results of the draws. Many have a breakdown of the number of winners for each subprize category.
7. Results at Retailer: Many retailers have draw results posted daily. They also have a breakdown of the prizes. Many also have a sign showing what the jackpot is for the next draw. If the jackpot was won, you need to double check your tickets.
8. Ticket Checker at Retailer: Many retailers have a ticket checker. The ticket checker is self serve and allows the player to scan their ticket to confirm its status (winning or non-winning).
9. Ticket Validation with Retailer: You can hand the ticket to the retailer to check its status. If it is a winning ticket, the Customer Display Unit (if available) will confirm it is winner. This confirmation is validated with a sound (where available). A validation slip is printed when processed through the ticket terminal.
10. Newspaper: Many communities publish the lottery results in their newspapers.
11. Billboards: We probably have all seen billboard advertising lotteries. Although they may not publish results, they usually advertise how big the jackpot has grown. If the jackpot goes down after a lottery draw, you know that someone won and it would be a good idea to check your ticket.
12. eMail: Some lotteries offer a service where you can receive winning results by email
13. Lottery App: Although an individual lottery may not have an App, the region (state or province) may offer an app for the player to verify their tickets. Similar to a ticket checker at a retailer you can use your lottery app to scan the barcode with the camera on your phone. It then checks against the sold tickets in your region and lets you know if you have a winning or non-winning ticket.
14. RSS Feed: Some websites (including ours) has a RSS Feed which can be use to view results.

It is a good idea the verify your ticket using one or more of the above methods, especially if your ticket is a larger prize winner.

Get your Validation Slip

When you have your ticket validated through the ticket terminal, it will print out a validation slip. This validation slip indicates the status of the ticket (winner or non-winner) plus any prize amount won. You can also compare the validation slip with your ticket to confirm everything matches

Get your Ticket Back

If the prize is payable by the ticket retailer, they will tear the ticket in half and give it back to you with your prize. All other tickets are returned to the player in one piece. These could be non-winners, or a prize larger than the retailer can pay out.

Retailer Region Limits

Both the US and Canada have different regions, usually delimited by the state or province. Even if you have a winning ticket, it can only be claimed in the region which you bought the ticket. Each region has their own computer system to record tickets purchased in their region. So it is impossible to verify your ticket at a terminal in another region. In this case, you can either visit the region again where the ticket was purchased or mail the ticket to the region to claim your prize.

---

Thinking of playing the lottery? Let's take a look at the odds of winning the grand prize of one of the countries national lotteries.

Most states and provinces have a choice of a national lottery to play. It can be Megamillions or Powerball in the United States. In Canada, Lotto 649 is one of three national lotteries available in all the provinces. There are lots of chances to win a smaller prize but when we buy lottery tickets, we are always hoping to be one of the fortunate few who wins the grand prize.

Computing the Odds of Winning the Grand Prize

The odds of winning the grand prize are indeed very slim.

• Powerball (US) - 1 in 292,201,338
• MegaMillions (US) - 1 in 302,744,860
• Lotto 649 (Canada) - 1 in 13,983,816

Let's look at Lotto 649 for an example. 1 in 13,983,816 chances of winning the grand prize. How does one figure that out?

Lotto 649 is played by choosing 6 numbers out of a possible 49 numbers (1 to 49).

When the first ball comes out of the draw machine, the odds are 1 in 49 since there are 49 balls in the machine.

Now that number cannot be drawn again. There are 48 numbers left, so the odds of the second number are 1 in 48.

The third number, the odds are 1 in 47.

The fourth number, the odds are 1 in 46.

The fifth, 1 in 45.

And finally the sixth, 1 in 44.

Now if the order of the numbers coming out of the machine mattered, then the odds would be 1 in 49 x 48 x 47 x 46 x 45 x 44.

However, order doesn't matter in this particular type of lottery, meaning that you only need to choose six numbers, not the order they were drawn. You divide the odds by the order of the numbers drawn.

(49 x 48 x 47 x 46 x 45 x 44) / (6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1)

10,068,347,520 / 720

That would give us 13,983,816. So the odds of winning the grand prize in Lotto 649 are 1 in 13,983,816.

Similar calculations are made to figure out the odds for winning Powerball or Megamillions, except taking the powerball or mega number into consideration.

Illustrated Representation of Winning the Lottery

Once again using Lotto 649 as an example, the odds of winning are 1 in 13,983,816. How can I represent this illustratively? A picture is worth one thousand words. Or in this case, this picture illustrates the odds of winning Lotto 649.

A pixel is the smallest dot you can see on a screen, or is the smallest dot on an image. A good quality camera can take a picture in many Megapixels. A megapixel has a resolution of 1024 pixels x 1024 pixels, or 1 megabyte x 1 megabyte. So 13,983,816 would be about 13.3 megapixels, or 13,983,816 / (1024 x 1024).

This apparently blank picture you see here has a resolution of 3864 pixels x 3619 pixels, which is a bit of an oddball size as far as picture resolution. However, guess what? 3864 x 3619 = 13,983,816, the same odds of winning the lottery. For fun, there is one white pixel in this image of black pixels.

See if you can find it.

You will have to click on the picture and view the image in 100% mode, otherwise the white pixel will just blend in. The combination of numbers of your lottery ticket represents 1 of the pixels in this picture. When the lottery draw occurs, its combination of numbers symbolically chooses one of the pixels in the picture as well. If your pixel happens to be the same pixel the draw picks, well, you would have won the lottery!

More Illustrated Representations of Winning the Lottery

We had deliberately chosen Lotto 649 for an illustrative representation to demonstrate the odds of winning. This is because computers are capable of displaying a 13.3 Megapixel image - they do it all the time when viewing high quality pictures taken with a camera. But now let's look at the bigger American lotteries, such as Powerball and Megamillions. Those images would be way bigger.

The image for Powerball would be 17239 x 16951 in size, or 278.7 Megapixels

The image for Megamillions would be 17860 x 16951 in size, equivalent to 288.7 megapixels. We have included these images here as well for completeness, however these images are so huge, they may not display properly in a browser. You can download them if you wish to examine them. Since they are essentially mostly black pixels with one white pixel, they are stored in relatively small png files.

Lottery Odds and iPhone 11's

You may have heard the odds of winning are like choosing a single blade of grass on a football field. That analogy is too vague. What type of grass. How densed? As in the above examples, We will stick to pixels.

Rather than using an image or blades of grass for illustrating the odds of winning the lottery, we can use an iPhone, and in our case, the new iPhone 11. An iPhone 11 also has pixels. The iPhone has a resolution of 1792 x 828 pixel, or 1.41 Megapixels. So in order to display the odds of winning the lottery using the pixels counts of iPhone 11's as your basis of measurement, you would need:

• Lotto 649 - 13,983,816 / (1792x828) = 9.4 iPhone 11's
  
• Powerball - 292,218,289 / (1792x828) = 196.9 iPhone 11's
  
• MegaMillions - 302,744,860/ (1792x828) = 204.0 iPhone 11's
  

So with all the pixels on all those iPhones, if you happen to choose the same pixel as the lottery does, that would be the same odds of winning the lottery.

---

Without a doubt, this website is full of lucky numbers and lucky combinations.

Millions of dollars have been won with lotteries.

However, in order for you to be lucky with your numbers and lotteries, you must match the following 4 criteria.

You must have:

1. A valid ticket.
2. The proper draw date.
3. The proper lottery.
4. The right combination of numbers for a draw for either a grand prize, or a lesser prize.

A Valid Ticket

To purchase a valid ticket, you only need the cost of a lottery ticket, and a place to purchase your ticket.

You must also be legal age to play.

You will need to find a lottery ticket reseller, or even purchase the ticket online and you are good to go with a valid ticket.

A valid ticket also means it is not expired, or has not been cancelled by the purchaser or reseller, or has not been lost.

It must also meet the validation requirements when the ticket is presented for claiming your prize.

The Proper Draw Date

Although some lotteries allow you to buy tickets in advance (with multiple draws option or by subscription), when you purchase a lottery ticket, it is usually for the upcoming draw for that particular lottery.

Keep in mind, some lotteries have more than one draw per week. Some are even daily.

The Proper Lottery

This may be obvious, but it is here to cover you basics.

Many lottery resellers sell lottery tickets for more than one lottery. When you purchase your ticket, make sure you are purchasing it for the lottery you want to play. Some lotteries sound very similar, for example in Canada there is Western 649, Atlantic 49, Ontario 49, Quebec 49, BC49 or just Lotto 649. Similar to Western Max, Quebec MAX and Lotto MAX.

The Right Combination of Numbers

The first 3 steps are very easy to do. In fact, every time you purchase a lottery ticket, you are performing steps 1 to 3 without even thinking. It is step 4, which is the dream-maker step.

The final step, choosing the right combination of numbers...well, that's where lady luck plays a huge roll. In fact, that's where lady luck plays the only roll. It is out of your hands and out of your control.

This website has, mind you one day delayed, steps 2, 3 and 4 from above 4 steps, but unfortunately, not step 1 - a valid ticket. Wouldn't it be nice to have 20/20 hindsight?

---

Numbers are numbers.

No feelings. No magicery. Just numbers.

But, if you ask someone what their lucky numbers are, chances are they have some.

It could be their current age.

It could be the numbers from a special date, like a birthday, anniversary, or even the trash day.

They could be the first numbers you see on a specific day.

Numbers from your jersey when you played sports.

They could be numbers which came to you in a dream.

If you think your numbers are lucky, check out our lottery search sections, plug in your numbers, and see how lucky your numbers would have been on one of the lotteries we have stored in our databases.

Some numbers are perceived to be lucky. Number 7 for example.

Some numbers are perceived to be unlucky, like 13.

But statistically, these numbers fall into the same category as all other numbers when it comes to lotteries.

And that category is "Random".

If you don't believe me, view the frequency charts for any of our American or Canadian lotteries, and you will see. All numbers are pretty well evenly distributed.

All lottery draws pull their numbers randomly from either a ball tumbler or tumblers or a computer generated program. Either way, the numbers are selected completely random.

This site can generate numbers, via our quick pick page. Keep in mind however, these are just random numbers. There is no guarantee that they are lucky numbers.

Please Play Responsibly ! ! ! Although this website is fun to view, to see the "what if's", it is just a database of previous lottery results. It cannot predict the future, nor is there any guarantee that any information from this website will produce winning numbers.

---