Default User wrote:
"Michael Grosberg" wrote in message
...

I knew a mathematician who believed in astrology and filled lottery
tickets, always with the numbers 1-2-3-4-5...n, as they were exactly
as probable as any other combination. Which is true, but
a. If these number ever came out in a draw, accusations of cheating
would disqualify the results

That seems highly unlikely to me. If no one had tha ticket when that
particular number was "drawn", then there would be no complaints of cheating
because there would be no winner. If there were ticket holders, invalidating
the result on whim would lead to lawsuits immediately. How would the lottery
officials then demonstrate that the results were not correct?

He is also not a particularly smart mathematician either. Every possible
combination of numbers is equally likely to to occur but sucker bets
based on birthdays and house numbers mean that numbers above 31 are to
be preferred if you do not want to share the prize. 42 is also worth
avoiding thanks to H2G2.

If the draw includes mostly numbers under 32 then the jackpot is
typically shared by many people due to this effect. If the numbers are
mostly 32 or higher then a jackpot rollover is more likely.

The Irish lottery famously managed to have too many small prizes and a
team of mathematicians came up with a syndicate to hoover them up and
win the jackpot periodically with a net profit each time around.

Regards,
Martin Brown