Results of my Last Irish Lotto System

And it's a FAIL!

I don't even think I matched 1 single number. I am going away for 2 weeks tomorrow so I will catch up when I come back.

My Experimental Lotto Winning System

My head hurts looking for legitimate lotto wheels that actually work, so I have decided to try out my own winning system, combining my observations from the last 117 Irish Lotto draws together with a wheeling system that I completed all by myself because I couldn't find what I was looking for online, at least not within the free wheeling systems.

I have selected 12 numbers in total, incuding 3 numbers that MUST be in all my lotto slips.

In order to have a more or less balanced selection, I chose:

• 3 even numbers ranging from 2 to 22,
• 3 odd numbers ranging from 1 to 21,
• 3 even numbers ranging from 24 to 44,
• 3 odd numbers ranging from 23 to 45.

Here is how I selected the 3 numbers that must be included:

•  1 number must be a repeat from the last draw: I chose 42 because it had not be drawn in the previous 27 draws;
• 1 cold number: I could have chosen 43 (only drawn 5 times), but since it came out in the last 2 draws, I selected number 1 instead (did not come out in the last 34 draws);
• 1 hot number: I picked the number 7 (drawn 22 times, it is the hottest number at the moment).

I also decided to skip the 30-39 group, as it has not been skipped for the last 27 draws.

Here are the 12 numbers that I came up with (note the 3 highlighted red numbers that must be included):
1, 6, 7, 12, 20, 21, 23, 26, 27, 28, 42, 45.

I then made a spreadsheet including the numbers 1, 7 and 42 followed by all the possible combinations of the 9 remaining numbers, so that I have sets of 6 numbers (I found 86).

The next step is to add up the totals of all the numbers for each combination, and take out all sets that add up to less than 100 and all the sets that add up to more than 180 (I now have 80 sets of 6 numbers).

Now I want to eliminate the sets that have too many odd or too many even numbers; I will keep 2/4, 3/3 and 4/2. This leaves me with 74 combinations, which is far too many, so I need to take out more combinations.

The lowest possible combination is 1+2+3+4+5+6=21;
The highest possible combination is 45+44+43+42+41+40=255;
255+21=276;
276/2 =138------>average sum of all possible lotto combinations. I can see that the highest combination sum in my selected numbers equals 150 (which is 138+12), so I have decided to keep only the combinations that have sums ranging between 126 (138-12) and 150 (138+12).

I now have 25 combinations left, which is still too many to play with real money, but since I am still too chicken to actually buy the lotto tickets, it won't cost me anything to try them out. Since this is a 25 panel game, it would cost 25x€1.50=€37.50 to play this selection, so to make it worthwhile, a match 5 win would be nice. Now all I have to do is wait and see if I have any matching combinations (holding my breath until tonight, 8.00 pm).

Just for your information, here is my chosen selection:

Results of 44 Number 20 Combination Wheel

I have just compared last night's Irish lotto results with the 44 number 20 combination wheel I wrote about yesterday and, even though I must admit it worked: 3 winning numbers in one line (24, 32 and 34 in the last line), it is really not worth investing the €30 required to play this system because, unfortunately, winning €5 with a €30 spend will leave you with a €25 loss (good thing I haven't actually bought the tickets).

What I am looking for is a lottery system that won't cost a fortune to use; it would be ideal if it didn't require more than the 10 panels that are on a single ticket (€15 spend). For this I would need to win at least a match 4 prize every time I play (match 4 prizes can range from about €30 to €60, but they can be less or more, depending on the prize pool and how many winners of that prize there are), or a match 5 every 10 draws (spend €150 and win something around €1000). If I can integrate what I have noticed about Irish lotto statistics (see my previous articles), all the better, so it's back to the drawing board until I can find something that is much more reliable than the last system I've tried.

Free Lotto Winning System no. 1

I typed "Free lotto winning systems" in the Google search box and was given quite a few interesting pages to choose from. Some of the websites would make you believe they have a free winning system but they eventually lead you to a sales page, so I am trying to avoid these (I can't stand dishonesty!)

I have just found a website that has lots of lotto wheels to choose from: Lotto wheels are systems that allow you to combine several numbers so that you get more chances to win a prize (not necessarily the jackpot, but a prize is a prize!). For example, if you want to play 12 numbers there is a way to combine them in several 6 number selections: if you pick a "3 if 6", you are guaranteed to win a 3 ball prize IF (and that's a big IF, don't get fooled by the wording) 6 of your 12 numbers are drawn. Remember that there are 45 numbers to choose from in the Irish lotto, so in no way this type of wheel will guarantee a win at all, but in the event that you have selected the 6 winning numbers in your 12 chosen numbers, the wheel gives you a better chance to win than if you randomly selected 6 number combinations of the same 12 numbers.

One of those wheels in particular has attracted my attention: it is a 44 number 20 combination wheel, which would cover almost all the Irish lotto numbers (there is no 45 number 20 combination wheel on that website: if there was, that is the one I would try). This wheel does not say that it can make you win a jackpot, so please let's not rush out to the newsagent and spend €30 on lottery tickets just yet. I will try it out first without buying a ticket because this seems too good to be true, and you all know the saying: "if it's too good to be true...".



I am not very confident that the result will be positive, in fact, if I had played these numbers in the last draw, I would have had 1 ticket with 3 winning numbers, that's one €5 win (yeah!) for a €30 spend (Boohoo!). Let's see what happens anyway after tonight's Irish lotto draw.

Irish Lotto statistics: Mathematics

I was not sure what title should I give this post, but since I have used some mathematics formulas, here we go:

I calculated the sums and averages of all 6 main Irish lotto numbers for each draw and here is what I have found for the last 115 draws:

• The sums* of 6 main lotto numbers ranged between 69 and 210: this is a wide range, but if we take out the extreme results that occur less often, we can deduce that it is safe to only pick 6-number combinations for which the sum falls between 100 and 180, since the 69-99 range amounts for only 11% (13 out of 115 draws) and the 181-210 range amounts for only 7% of the draws (8 out of 115).
• The average value** of 6 main lotto numbers ranged between 12 ad 35. In order to reduce the number of possible combinations, it would be safe enough (although not guaranteed a win) to take out the extreme values: 13 out of 115 average values (11%) are under 17 and 10 out of 115 average values are over 29 (9%) so it is relatively safe to pick 6 lotto numbers that average between 17 and 29.

*Where the sum is obtained by adding the total of your 6 numbers;
**Where the average is obtained by adding the total of your 6 numbers, divided by 6.

If you have some lucky numbers that you think you MUST play, by all means play them but it would be a good idea to pick your other numbers in a way that the sum of your 6 number falls between 100 and 180 and for which the average falls between 17 and 29, taking into account what I have written about in my previous posts:

• Hot and cold numbers,
• Even and odd combinations,
• Skipping groups of ten,
• Repeats.

Well I have had enough with the theory, so in my next posts I am going to be a little more practical and  look at some of the free lotto winning systems available on the web, and whether they work or not.

Irish Lotto Statistics: Repeats

One thing I have noticed about Irish Lotto statistics is repeated numbers.

In 68 out of 114 draws (60%), one or more of the winning numbers was also present in the previous lotto draw. This can reduce the number of possibilities when deciding which lotto numbers to pick. there were 2 instances where as many as 3 of the winning numbers were drawn twice in a row.

While I wouldn't go as far as selecting 3 numbers from the last lotto draw in any of my own lotto panels, I would try and pick just one of the previously drawn numbers; the only problem is knowing which one will decide to pop out of the doledrum.

Irish Lotto Statistics: Skipping Groups of Ten

When you play the Irish Lotto, you must select 6 numbers ranging from 1 to 45.  Do you think it is safer to spread your chosen numbers so that they are evenly spread?

One thing that can be noticed when studying the past Irish lotto draws is that a lot of the time, one or more groups of ten does not come out. The groups I am talking about are:

• 1 to 9;
• 10 to 19;
• 20 to 29;
• 30 to 39;
• 40 to 45.  

You can see that this amounts to 5 groups, so it would be logical to think that picking 2 numbers from one group and 1 number from every other group would give you more chances to win, but this is rarely the case: in fact, out of the last 112 lotto draws, in 98 of the draws, one or more groups of ten were skipped (that is 87.5%).

Another thing I have looked at is that since the last group (40 to 45) includes only 6 numbers, how likely is it that numbers from this group would be skipped alltogether in a draw? It turns out that 52 out of the last 112 draws did not include any of these numbers (46.43% of draws skipped the last group). When comparing all the groups of ten together, here is what I have noticed:

• 1 to 9: 30 out of 112 draws skipped this group (26.79%);
• 10 to 19: 24 out of 112 draws skipped this group (21.43%);
• 20 to 29: 20 out of 112 draws skipped this group (17.86%);
• 30 to 39: 17 out of 112 draws skipped this group (15.18%);
• 40 to 45: 52 out of 112 draws skipped this group (46.43%).

For some reason, it looks like some groups are more popular than others; this is something to consider the next time you select your lotto numbers, don't you think?

Irish Lotto Statistics: Even and Odd Combinations

How do you pick your lotto numbers? I know a lot of people pick birth dates, ages or any other numbers that their think are lucky, not really thinking whether their lotto numbers combinations are likely to be picked.

Theoritically, every single possible lotto numbers combination has the same chance to be drawn, but this is not what happens in reality, this is why I am convinced that choosing your numbers carefully can increase your chances of winning. For example, if you picked 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 as your lotto numbers, would you expect to win a lotto jackpot? If you are a serious lotto player I bet you are careful to spread your numbers a little more than this (don't go the extreme way by spreading them exactly either, they are supposed to be random, not calculated).

It is the same with even and odd combinations: in the previous last 109 lotto draws, 1 had only odd numbers, 4 had only even numbers while 85 had either 3 even/3 odd, 2 even/4 odd or 4 even/2 odd numbers, with a slight majority (36 out of 109 draws) having 3 even/3 odd numbers.

So if you have not yet picked your numbers for tonight's lotto draws, maybe these statistics could give you something to think about. Of course there is a possibility that only even numbers or only odd numbers come out; after all, it has happened before, but if I were paying for a lotto ticket, I would rather put the odds on my side (excuse the pun).

Irish Lotto Statistics: Hot And Cold Numbers

I have been studying past Irish lotto results for the last week. The National lottery website used to have a page of statistics but that was pretty useless since they changed the lotto draw from 42 to 45 numbers and their statistics showed results from before and after the changeover.

I took the last 108 main lotto draws (starting 3rd June 2010 until 12th June 2010) and copied the 6 first numbers from each draw into a spreadsheet in order to see if there are any numbers that come out more often than the rest. Here are my observations so far:

• Some numbers look like they are unlucky : 43 came out twice in the last 108 draws, 1 came out 7 times, 12, 25 and 31 came out 8 times and 5 came out 9 times.
• Now for the hot numbers (those that come out more often: 2, 3 and 24 came out 20 times over the 108 last draws, 9, 15, 32 and 34 came out 19 times, 4 and 7 came out 18 times and 10, 18, 20, 36, 39 and 40 came out 17 times.

What to make of these observations? If I were to pick my next 6 lotto numbers, I would pick a mixture of cold, medium and hot numbers as follow: 1 cold number, 2 or 3 medium and 2 or 3 hot numbers because I think that I would have a better chance of winning this way than if I picked all hot or all cold numbers.

Of course I could be mistaken, and it could take the next 10 lotto draws to turn some of the above cold numbers into medium or even hot numbers but for lack of a better insight, that is what I would personally go for right now.

Winning My Lotto With Responsible Gambling

Playing lotto is a form of gambling which, if not done responsibly, can quickly become out of control and make people spend money they cannot afford on lotto slips.

This blog is not about winning the lotto jackpot at all costs: it is more about studying probabilities and trying to win a decent lottery prize without spending too much money on lottery tickets.

I strongly advise against taking any advice from me or from anyone else about lottery systems that you do not fully believe in. In fact, I hope that you will be testing the methods I am sharing with you before playing with real money (I know this is what I will be doing).I cannot be held responsible for any loss that may be incurred by using any of the methods I will be writing about.

If you feel that you are at risk of becoming addicted to playing lottery games, please stop reading this blog and look for advice from a gamblers' helpline.

Now that I have cleared the air, I can get on with Winning my lotto.

Winning My Lotto

I have decided that I am going to win the Irish lotto. I am not a guru, I am not going to sell you a bullshit system that doesn't work, even though I am going to add a few affiliate links in there somewhere that you are free to buy or not. All I need is for you to be patient, as I am learning as I go, but you must know that I am determined in finding a way to increase my chances of success at winning the Irish lotto.

I have looked at several lotto systems that are available on the net, some of them free, some of them not, and I have played a few panels in the past and I have won twice: 42 Irish pounds nine years ago (yes, that was before the Euro became the common European currency) and €10 two year ago. Like most lottery players, I have spent more money on lotto tickets than I have won.

Today, this is all going to change: I am going to study a few lotto systems and try them out; not with real money at first, but if I find a system that is not too expensive to use and that seems to work, I might try it out for real.

The first thing to do is to study the last lotto draws: I am working with the Irish lotto because I live in Ireland. I am going to ignore the lotto plus draws for a start, as they just make things too complicated.

To play the Irish lotto we must pick 6 numbers between 1 and 45 (it used to be 42 but unfortunately this was changed to 45 a few years ago). For geeks and mathematicians (and I know they are out there somewhere), this gives us a big number of possible combinations to choose from: 45 x 44 x 43 x 42 x 41 x 40 =5,864,443,200 possible winning combinations.

Given the fact that each panel costs €1.50 to play, if we were to play all the possible lotto combinations, we would have to spend €8,796,664,800 on lotto tickets. The Irish lotto jackpot can range between €1.5 and €14 million, depending on when the last big prize was won, and in the event that we win, we may have to share the prize if there is more than one winning ticket, so simply playing all the possible combinations is not only extremely impractical (I imagine it could take up to a month for the poor sod who decides to fill in the lotto tickets, and another few weeks for processing all the tickets), it does not guarantee that the win will be higher than the spend, even in the event of a big rollover.


Since I am very stubborn (it is not always a default, especially if you call it determination), I am not going to stop here in my lotto winning quest, and there are a few things I need to look into, that will greatly reduce the number of conbinations, especially if I am willing to settle for a slightly smaller prize: instead of winning ONE huge prize, maybe I can win SEVERAL smaller prizes and a lot of the possible combinations that have a minimal chance of being drawn could be eliminated in order to reduce the outlay.

Time is getting on, and there is no rush for winning my lotto, so I will take time to study these later on. If you want to follow my progress and be part of my big lotto adventure, bookmark this blog or subscribe to my RSS. I am a real person just like you, and I hate BS as much as you do. I have lots of free advice that could make you rich as long as you stay wise and don't go crazy on spending lots of money on lottery tickets.