Lottery Strategies - What Bonus Number To Pick?

By Author: Darrel Dolph
Total Articles: 46
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Serious lottery players, playing the Mega Millions lottery, face a similar dilemma, what to do about that troublesome Bonus number. There are many lottery strategies that analyze the past winning lotto numbers. Unfortunately, the amount of Bonus number data provides a very small set (only one number per drawing) and it is hard to find any bonus number patterns or trends. For most players it ends up being just a guess. But, it doesn't have to be that way. The alternative is to play smart. That involves playing the odds. This is what I mean.

First, you create a chronological list of the Bonus numbers for the Mega Millions lottery. This list contains numbers from 1 to 46. The size of the list is up to you but, make it large enough so that one number won't have a serious effect on the results. One hundred drawings is the minimum but, the more the merrier. In this case, the list contains the last 146 Bonus numbers.

I analyzed the list with a spreadsheet. Now, analyzing the Bonus number tends to be problematic because, with only one Bonus number per drawing, there is little to work with. But, you can always ...
... learn something. Here's what I found.

I wanted to know how Bonus numbers repeat themselves. For instance, on 6 occasions in 146 drawings the Bonus number repeated back to back. The previous two drawings yielded the Bonus number on 8 occasions. Etc. So, what do you do with this information? Good question.

The last 5 Bonus numbers will repeat 10% of the time in the Mega Millions lottery. That also means that 90% of the time the Bonus number is not one of the last 5 numbers but from a 41 number list of the remaining pool. On the average, you will be right in 9 of the next 10 drawings. So, while everyone else have odds of 1 in 46, you have odds of 1 in 41, 90% of the time.

Let's take it a step further. About 20% of the time a Bonus number from the last 10 drawings will repeat. So, 80% of the time the Bonus number will not be in that list. If you choose your Bonus number from this 36 number pool, you will be right 80% of the time. On the average, you will be right in 8 of the next 10 drawings.

No doubt, some complainer out there is going to say, 'That's no big deal.' Mr. Positive is obviously not a professional gambler. Because, what we are doing here is the same thing all professional gamblers are doing. They are playing the odds. Over time, over the long haul, this will pay dividends.

Not convinced yet? This data was obtained from the Mega Million lottery website. In the last Mega Millions drawing a total of 482,143 wagers had the Bonus number correct. We'll assume their Bonus number was selected from the 46 number pool. Now, if everyone selected their Bonus number from the 36 number pool, there was an 80% chance that 616,072 wagers would have the Bonus number correct. That's 133,929 more wagers containing the winning Bonus number. Even if the players got no other numbers correct, at $2.00 a pop, that's an additional payout of $267,858. Therefore, on the average, in 4 out of every 5 drawings, the lottery would have to pay $267,858 more.

Analyzing lottery number patterns like this are examples of lottery strategies created to help you increase your chances of winning the lottery jackpot. It's simple and it's easy.
Professor Dolph is a world-famous lottery expert, lecturer, columnist and the developer of the breakthrough lottery software known as LONA. For a new creative take on the lottery, make Professor Dolph your Lottery Number Advisor.