Lester Wrote:
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> ...In the long run, they have no impact as the distribution of
> the numbers tend to spread out evenly.
The Lottery folks go way out of their way to insure there is no measurable bias in the number picking.
Here's an analysis for 700+ drawings:
http://www.virginialottery.com/megamillions/game_analysis.asp
And here is the video showing the last drawing - note how the randomizer works:
http://www.virginialottery.com/megamillions/video.asp?quality=high&date=3/27/2012
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Note, however, that PEOPLE are not so random - there are LOTS of sets of numbers that people pick over and over again. Any consecutive sequence, for example, is pretty much guaranteed to have more than one person playing it (like 1 2 3 4 5 6. or 6 5 4 3 2 1, etc or 2 4 6 8 10 12, etc). Sets with '7' and '13' are undoubtedly popular. Sets that, for example, begin with '1' and end with '56' with the Megaball as '1' or '46' are probably popular. The PREVIOUS drawings set of numbers is probably popular.
So...
If you want to increase your chance of NOT sharing the top prize, pick random sets of numbers that minimally overlap the above sets. You won't increase your chance of WINNING, but you will increase your chance, should you win, that you win alone!