IS THAT A FACT?!
Question
Am I more likely to win the lottery if I pick the same numbers every time or choose different ones?
Answer
In a game like the California Super Lotto, where six winning numbers from 1 to 51 are chosen randomly, each set of six numbers you pick has an equal chance of bringing home the grand prize. The bouncing balls used to determine the winning numbers have no memory of what they did in previous drawings.
There is a strategy for lowering your odds of having to share the prize in the unlikely event that you do win: Choose numbers no one else is likely to select.
Avoid common combinations, such as 5-10-15-20-25-30. Scorn the widely used numbers from 1 to 12, which often represent birthdays, anniversaries and other important dates to lottery players. And ignore the numbers used in lottery examples; at one time, one of the most popular sets of numbers people played was the one on the instructions printed on the back of tickets.
Source
Jessica Utts, statistics professor and special assistant to the provost in the UC Davis Office of Academic Outreach. An award-winning teacher, Utts is the author of the new book Seeing Through Statistics (Wadsworth, 1996), designed to help the public better understand statistical issues in the news and daily life.
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