SUN STAIRWAY
TO SUPER 7 HEAVEN
Monday, May 13, 2002
Tag: 0205130101
Edition: Final
Section: News
Length: 44 lines
Page: 10
BY A.J. BLAUER, OTTAWA SUN
Pssssst. Want a hot number for
Friday's $34-million Super 7 draw? Try combining the year of your birth
with the last two digits of your social insurance number and the single
digit of your IQ: You're guaranteed a one in 62,891,499 chance of
winning the jackpot!
The odds aren't great, but that's not
stopping thousands of people from dreaming big. Chances are, however,
Mark Nigrini doesn't figure into those dreams.
The internationally celebrated data
sleuth and accounting professor from Southern Methodist University in
Dallas knows his numbers and he says the 7/47 lottery scheme doesn't
offer much hope even if it does give you three sets of numbers for
$2.
Although Nigrini would never play the
lottery himself, he offers some practical advice:
- Rule No. 1: Any group of seven
numbers has the same probability of winning. That means that you're just
as likely to win with the number combination 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 as you
are with any other combination. But don't mark your ticket just yet
...
- Rule No. 2: People use low numbers
far more than they use high numbers. "My suggestion is to pick all
the numbers larger than 35," Nigrini said. "It doesn't change
the odds of winning, but it does change the odds of sharing."
- Rule No. 3: Don't play patterns on
your scorecard. "People think that they're the only ones that do
that," Nigrini said. Again, you increase your odds of sharing a
jackpot.
- Rule No. 4: Don't take one number
from each row on the scorecard. Nigrini said about one in every two
winning combinations has two consecutive numbers. If you take a number
from each row, you're almost guaranteeing yourself a zero chance at
every second draw.
- Rule No. 5: Pick numbers that use
less paint. "A ball with a '1' painted on it would be lighter than
a ball with a '47' on it," Nigrini muses.
Though statistically insignificant,
this strategy is more credible than any "system" sold to
increase an individual's odds at winning the lottery, Nigrini said.
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http://www.canoe.ca/OttawaNews/os.os-05-13-0013.html
