The Truth About Lottery Predictions

By: Helen Polaski

Lottery predictions cannot be scientifically validated. Or can they? Predictions are often based on data gathered prior to the actual event. For instance, when a weather forecaster predicts a tornado, he has already seen the weather shift into patterns normally associated with tornadoes. Therefore, he knows, based on earlier outcomes, that a tornado is likely. When everything lines up and points toward an imminent tornado, the weatherman quickly informs his audience to take cover.

Lottery predictions are created in basically the same manner. When you pay someone to either make a lottery prediction for you or show you how to create your own lottery predictions, the method is usually done by using a specific mathematical equation that incorporates previous numbers that have been drawn in previous lotteries over a certain period of time. This method also takes into account the amount of numbers involved and the average number of tickets purchased. At this point the person who is predicting upcoming lottery results informs his audience it's time to purchase a lottery ticket.

The Problem with Predictions
No prediction scenario can ever be 100% accurate. In the case of the weatherman, the job may actually be easier, because meteorologists have sophisticated computer models and decades of data to help them build forecasts, but even this information only points to potential. Ask the weatherman if there will be tornadoes, and he'll say yes. Ask him where and when they'll occur, and he can't give a precise answer.

Lottery predictions are even less reliable than weather reports, because they're based on data put out by a random number generator. Lottery machines are tested and retested to ensure that the numbers chosen are actually random. Any patterns that appear in the numbers are pure concidence. Compounding the problem, anyone who makes predictions on lottery numbers has to make critical assumptions about information, including how many people are likely to buy tickets.

The only way you can find out for sure that a soothsayer has the ability to actually predict lottery numbers is to buy into the hype. Before you do, think about this: If you could predict winning lottery numbers, would you give the information away or sell it for the mere price of a book? Or would you keep the information under lock and key and win the lottery yourself?

Predictions Are Gambles
When it comes to lotto predictions, the Law of Large Numbers states that as the number of trials increases, the results will approach the expected average. In a nutshell, that means virtually every number in the lottery will eventually hit the same amount of times. What you can't know is how long that might take.

Most soothsayers pick numbers that have already hit more times than other numbers. The statistics of those same numbers hitting again are not carved in stone. Unfortunately, should there ever come a time when lottery predictions are accurate enough that the answers could be carved in stone, you can be sure the lottery, as we know it, will be replaced with a newer, more high-tech game in which the code has not been cracked.

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