That's not exactly new information, is it?
Neither is the idea that nobody can predict what those numbers will be. However, when a lottery machine selects the numbers this is in no sense a random action. It is 100% predictable. There is nothing stopping anybody calculating exactly which balls not only will, but MUST be drawn. Nothing stopping you. It will simply take a measuring and timing tolerance at the edge of possibility combined with a huge series of calculations.
You can measure the balls and know their properties. You can time the intervals between starting and stopping the contra-rotating tumble dryers. You can project the trajectories of every single ball and their interactions with each other. It can be done. But it would probably cost more than the size of the lottery jackpot to fund the project and nobody is going to be very happy with people standing around and timing the balls to that degree of accuracy, because one microsecond will totally disrupt all the calculations. The lottery ball machine is totally predictable and not in any way random, but exactly the same thing can be said about a woman. Both are determined and predictable systems, but they simulate randomness far more elegantly than true randomness would. True randomness is a willo-the-wisp entity, like infinity, the highest prime number and the function of half of the roundabouts in Warrington. Lottery machines are not random, but they are chaotic, and therefore, like the minds of women, very difficult to probe with the crude analytical tools we have at our disposal.
So, I can't tell you how to win the lottery. However, I can offer you some interesting advice that you might find helpful.
You have to be in it to win it
This is a very common slogan used by lotteries and football pools companies alike. What this slogan is saying is you can't dream of winning the lottery or the pools unless you part with your beer tokens. Of course they are right. If you never buy a ticket you can never win. But how many times do you dream of winning? Do you have to win every week to be happy? Of course not. You only have to win once. So you only have to buy one ticket, at some time in the future to be able to legitimately dream of winning a huge jackpot.
One ticket will do
Your chance of winning a share in a big jackpot prize is very low. In the UK national lottery (now named Lotto) your chances of having a share of a top jackpot, by getting 6 balls out of 6 representing the numbers 1 to 49 are 1 in 13,983,816.
Now most weeks people win, often several people share the jackpot. So it does happen. But if you staked £5 every week on those odds you would not have a realistic expectation of winning a share in a jackpot in a normal lifetime. But you knew that anyway, didn't you?
So you might as well get used to the idea that winning the lottery is unlikely. But it's also nice to have a dream, it is good for your mental health. So here is the secret: Buy a ticket. One day. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe not.
