Monster Media 1994 #1

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M A N U A L for Lotto Magic by Talismatics Inc. (c) copyright 1994 Table of Contents 1.0 A Few Thoughts on 6/49 and Similar Lotteries 2.0 The Program 2.1 Instructions 2.2 Make a New Set of Tickets 2.3 Load a Set of Tickets 2.4 Test the Set of Tickets 2.5 Print the Tickets 2.6 Check for Winning Tickets 2.7 Set Defaults 2.8 Exit Appendix A: Chart of Winning Tickets for Lotto 6/49 Appendix B: Charts of Winning Tickets for Other Lotteries Appendix C: Chances of Winning by Selecting More Than 6 Numbers 1.0 A Few Thoughts on 6/49 and Similar Lotteries You know that, in the long run, you can't win in Lotto 6/49 or any of its relatives such as Lotto 6/45 or 6/54. The odds are against you, and the government takes too much of the money. So you say you don't care. You are going to enter anyway. You have an office pool of $50 a week to bet and you want to make your chances of winning as good as possible. Nobody in your group is going to go broke betting and nobody expects to win a lot. It would be nice though, to win something every so often. What you normally find is that, in a set of 100 randomly filled-in tickets, there will often be 2 winning tickets, sometimes none or 1, and maybe 3, but very seldom more than 4. There are just too many losing numbers. This program describes a method of betting that will increase the number of 3, 4 and 5 number matching tickets in a group of tickets. When we say increase, we are comparing its results to results obtained using the usual way of betting; that is, to fill in the tickets with numbers selected freely and not in any particular pattern. To fill in a single ticket you have to select 6 numbers. What we propose is that you select more than 6 numbers, from 8 up to 18, then use these numbers on a group of tickets containing carefully selected combinations of the numbers. If enough tickets are filled in, you will have every combination of 3 numbers on your tickets. If you select a larger number of tickets, you will have every combination of 4 numbers or even 5 numbers. This means that if 3 or more of your chosen numbers are drawn in the lottery, you will have one or more winning tickets. If you have more than 6 numbers to choose from, it is easier to match 3 or more of them. The trick is to have a ticket with those 3 or 4 numbers on it. This is where this program comes in. It wasn't easy to find the right tickets. It took a 486DX2 66MHz machine took nearly 3 days to calculate the 18 number combinations of tickets that we give you. Other programs claim to do this as well. We have yet to find one that does it properly. If another program claims to do what we have described above in fewer tickets than we suggest, then beware. Check their lists of tickets carefully for every combination of numbers. We cannot guarantee that we have the minimum number of tickets for each combination of numbers, but we are confident that we are very close. As we further refine our algorithms, perhaps we will be able to do the trick in a few less tickets. This could make the program even more useful in the future. 2.0 The Program The top line of the screen shows the version number of the program and the type of lottery, such as Lotto 6/49. Once a set of tickets is selected the number of numbers and the number of tickets is also displayed. The Main Menu shows various choices. Only those displayed in white can be chosen. The ones displayed in gray cannot be selected until a set of tickets is loaded into the computer. 2.1 Instructions This option displays several screens of instructions outlining much of what is described in this manual. 2.2 Make a New Set of Tickets This is the most important option in the program. You are shown a chart showing numbers of numbers and numbers of tickets. The first decision to be made is the number of numbers to be used. The minimum is 8 numbers and the maximum is 18 numbers. Make your choice. Next you choose how many tickets you are going to use. The chart shows how many tickets are required to have every combination of 3 numbers (once, twice, three, four or five times each), or every combination of four numbers (1 to 4 times each), or every five numbers (once or twice) and, for most numbers, how many tickets are reqired to get every combination of 6 numbers. Make your choice. The next screen allows you to select the actual numbers that will appear on the tickets. Random numbers can be used. A set of them is displayed. Pressing the SPACE BAR will display another set. Pressing ENTER will select that set of numbers for your tickets. Pressing M will allow you to manually select numbers. Fill in the blanks. Use the right arrow key or the ENTER key to move to the next number to the right. Use the left arrow key to move back to the previous number. Press ENTER when all the numbers are entered. If numbers outside the allowed range, or duplicate numbers have been entered, the incorrect numbers will be erased and the cursor moved to the number needing correction. The correct tickets are now extracted and shown on the screen. You are given the opportunity to save the set of tickets before returning to the main menu. At this point, consider Menu Item 4 to Test the Set of Tickets before betting on them. For more advanced users with more money, there is a second set of ticket groups. You get to the menu by pressing ENTER instead of selecting a Number of Numbers. There are 3 choices. The first special set of tickets consists of 58 tickets using 13 numbers. Every combination of five numbers is present for the first 9 numbers selected. In addition, every combination of three numbers for the last 4 numbers is present. It would be best if any winning numbers were in the first 9 numbers, but you can still win if one or more of your tickets are in the last four numbers. The second special set of numbers consists of 107 tickets using 18 numbers. Every combination of 4 numbers is present for the first 12 numbers chosen. Every combination of 3 numbers is present for the last 3 numbers. The third special set of numbers consists of 200 tickets using 18 numbers. Every combination of 5 numbers is present for the first 9 of your numbers. Every combination of 4 numbers is present for your next 3 numbers. Every combination of three for the next 3 numbers occurs at least twice, and every combination of 3 numbers for the last 3 numbers occurs at least once. Load these ticket sets into the program and check them out. This may be what you want. 2.3 Load a Set of Tickets If you save the sets of tickets that you generate, you can retrieve them later using this option to check for winning tickets, print the tickets again, or analyse the tickets for possible wins. You will be shown a chart of the last 18 saved sets of tickets. Choose one, and it will be loaded into the computer. Actually, after choosing a set of numbers, you will be given the option of LOADING or DELETING the set. This gives you control over your saved numbers. 2.4 Test the Set of Tickets This option allows you to get some idea of how many times you will get winning tickets when you use the program. First load the set of tickets into the program, then select this option. The program will simulate entering these tickets into 200 lottery draws. There is a file containing 200 winning sets of numbers supplied with the program. These numbers were selected randomly by a computer. The results you get depend to some extent on what numbers you pick for your tickets, but do show roughly what kind of winning ticket distributions of tickets to expect. Generally speaking, the following will occur. As more numbers are chosen, working from 8 up to 18, the number of tickets with 3, 4 or more winning numbers will increase. For a particular number of numbers, as more tickets are selected, more winning tickets in each of the categories will be produced. This increases your chances of winning larger amounts of money. In 6/49 lotteries, if randomly selected ("Quick Pick") numbers are used instead of using this program, the number of winning tickets will be just less than 2 percent of the total number of tickets purchased. (A win in Ontario is a ticket with 3 or more winning numbers.) Beware! The program only increases your chances of having more winning tickets when you match 3 or more of the winning numbers. This doesn't mean that you will end up with more money than you started with. Don't plan on betting on Lotto 6/49 as a career. 2.5 Print the Tickets This option allows you to print the set of numbers. You are asked if you wish to print the numbers sorted or unsorted. If you choose to sort the numbers, they will be printed in order, starting with the lowest numbers and proceeding to those with the highest numbers. It saves time to print them unsorted, but makes it very difficult to check them. 2.6 Check for Winning Tickets To use this feature, first load in your original set of tickets using Menu Item 3. Choosing this Menu Item allows you to determine whether or not you have won, how many tickets have won, and which tickets have won. You are first asked to enter the 6 numbers drawn. Use the right arrow key or the ENTER key to move to the next number to the right. Use the left arrow key to move to the previous number. Use the BACKSPACE key to erase the previous digit entered. Press the ENTER key when all the numbers have been entered. The winning tickets will now be identified. 2.7 Set Defaults This selection first allows you to change the kind of lottery you are entering. The default is 49 for 6/49 lotteries. You can change this to any number from 20 to 90 to allow you to generate tickets for any such lottery that we have heard about. Only lotteries where 6 numbers are drawn are supported. The next item that can be changed is the printer port. Most computers are set up to print to LPT1:. If yours is LPT2: you can change the program here. The program can print to virtually any dot matrix printer or non- postscript laser printer since the output is purely ASCII characters. 2.8 Exit Selecting E to EXIT ends the program and returns you to DOS. Appendix A: Chart of Winning Numbers for Lotto 6/49 There are 13,983,816 different Lotto 6/49 tickets. Suppose you bought every one of them for one of the draws. No matter which 6 numbers are drawn, you would win a lot of prizes. The chart below summarizes the wins. Winners (in Canada) Match 6 numbers 1 ticket Match 5 numbers 258 tickets Match 4 numbers 13,545 tickets Match 3 numbers 246,820 tickets Losers (in Canada) Match 2 numbers 1,851,150 tickets Match 1 number 5,775,588 tickets No matching numbers 6,096,454 tickets Less than 3 matching numbers 13,723,192 tickets Total tickets 13,983,816 tickets Fair Games In mathematical game theory, a "fair" game is one in which all the money that is bet is distributed to the winners. A friendly poker game is "fair" since one person wins all the money in the pot. A slot machine is not "fair" since only a carefully controlled percentage of the money is returned to winners. In the long run, in a "fair" game, players of equal ability normally end up with about the same amount of money they started with. In an "unfair" game, the player with the advantage normally ends up with all the money. Government lotteries are not "fair" in the mathematical sense. Since the government keeps part of the money for expenses and extracts a healthy profit as well, perhaps as little as half of the money is returned as prizes. This makes it virtually impossible to make a profit in the long run. In our Lotto 6/49, tickets cost $1.00. If the odds are 13,983,816 to 1 against winning, why would I settle for a first prize of $2,500,000? Do you see why I won't enter unless first prize is going to be at least $13,983,816? Even then, there is a good chance that I will have to share my first prize with one or more other people. Note: If my Lotto 6/49 prize is $10, I actually win only $9 since they don't give me my $1 bet back. Think about it. Appendix B: Charts of Winning Tickets for Other Lotteries Here are charts for a other Lotto variations showing what would happen if you bought every ticket. LOTTO 6/45 NUMBERS PICKED TICKETS 0 3262623 1 3454542 2 1233765 ------- LOSERS 7950930 3 182780 4 11115 5 234 6 1 ------- WINNERS 194130 ------- TOTAL 8145060 LOTTO 6/35 NUMBERS PICKED TICKETS 0 475020 1 712530 2 356265 ------- LOSERS 1543815 3 73080 4 6090 5 174 6 1 ------- WINNERS 79345 ------- TOTAL 1623160 LOTTO 6/55 NUMBERS PICKED TICKETS 0 13983817 1 11441303 2 3178140 -------- LOSERS 28603260 3 368480 4 17640 5 294 6 1 -------- WINNERS 386415 -------- TOTAL 28989676 Appendix C: Chances of Winning by Selecting More Than 6 Numbers The following chart shows how betting on more numbers increases your chances of matching numbers. It won't mean anything if your set of tickets doesn't include all the required combinations of numbers. Note that selecting more numbers also means selecting more tickets to cover all the required combinations. Note also that the calculated percentages are theoretical values that would only be achieved exactly after a huge number of draws. Percentage of Draws with Winning Tickets Number of Matching Numbers Number of 3 4 5 6 Total Numbers Wins 6 1.77 0.10 0.00 0.00 1.86 7 2.87 0.22 0.01 0.00 3.10 8 4.27 0.41 0.02 0.00 4.70 9 5.93 0.70 0.04 0.00 6.67 10 7.84 1.11 0.07 0.00 9.03 11 9.95 1.66 0.13 0.00 11.74 12 12.22 2.36 0.21 0.01 14.80 13 14.60 3.22 0.33 0.01 18.17 14 17.04 4.26 0.50 0.02 21.82 15 19.47 5.48 0.73 0.04 25.71 16 21.85 6.87 1.03 0.06 29.81 17 24.12 8.44 1.42 0.09 34.07 18 26.23 10.18 1.90 0.13 38.44 Example 1: You choose 18 numbers. You select a set of tickets that has every combination of 3 of the 18 numbers on at least one ticket. You will have 1 or more winning tickets 26.23% of the time. The other percentages do not apply since you do not have every combination of 4, 5 or 6 tickets. Example 2: You choose 12 numbers. You select a set of tickets with every combination of 4 of the 12 numbers in it. This automatically means that you have every combination of 3 numbers as well, usually several times each. You will have 3 matching numbers 12.22% of the time and 4 matching numbers 2.36% of the time. The other numbers do not apply unless you increase the number of tickets to include every combination of 5 or 6 tickets. Example 3: You choose 8 numbers. You select the 28 ticket set that has every combination of 6 of the 8 numbers on it. You have a 4.70% chance of having one or more winning tickets (3 or more matching numbers). If any 6 of your 8 numbers are chosen, you will definitely have a ticket with those 6 numbers on it and win a share of first prize.