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Text File | 1992-12-14 | 32KB | 737 lines

COPYRIGHT NOTICE This software package and documentation are copyright 1992 by James M. Hoffman. All rights are reserved worldwide. The original purchaser of this software is authorized to install this for his own use and to make backup (or archival) copies only. Any other use or distribution is strictly prohibited without the written permission of James M. Hoffman. The author can be reached at JMH Software Inc, 2892 Mandarin Place, Palm Harbor, Florida 34684. The phone # is 813-785-8361. DISCLAIMER James M. Hoffman and JMH Software make no warranties as to the contents of this documentation or the LOT-O-WIN program and especially disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for any individual purpose. In no event shall James M. Hoffman or JMH Software INC. be liable for any loss of profit or any other loss or damage, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages. James M. Hoffman and JMH Software further reserve the right to make new enhancements and changes to the specifications of the LOT-O-WIN program and contents of the documentation without notice. ABOUT THE COMPANY JMH SOFTWARE INC. was formed in January of 1992 with the intended purpose of providing WINDOWS based software for the gaming, leisure, and entertainment industries. Our first and main product LOT-O-WIN (LOTTO FOR WINDOWS) is targeted for those lottery players who would like a GUI (Graphical User Interface) look to playing the lottery. The PRESIDENT, Jim Hoffman, has spent over 22 years in the data processing business - almost all of which have been spent in programming for Mainframe and PC systems. He has written software for the medical, government, manufacturing, and banking industries, and has written data base and data communications that are PC based for the banking industry ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author wishes to thank many people, especially John Hoffman (no relation) of the FLORIDA LOTTERY PLAYERS GUIDE for getting me interested in lottery playing, and of the sources I could use to find out more about "lotto". I also wish to thank BILL DOWLING who wrote a truly exceptional lotto program, "FEO - FOR EXPERTS ONLY". Bill's program is the only one in the nation that I know of that can print play slips. Bill has also given me great insight into verifying "wheels". I also wish to thank ROBERT SEROTIC, publisher of the LOTTO ADVISOR in California, for giving a terrific seminar in TAMPA, FLORIDA and for starting the FLORIDA LOTTO ADVISOR, and giving me insight into strategies and techniques. I would also like to thank the people at MICROSOFT for putting out a great product such VISUAL BASIC, and their VB support line which I used at all hours of the night. I would also like to acknowledge J.D. EVANS of ETN Corporation for his excellent book "VB = MC squared - the Art of VISUAL BASIC programming" and the people at CRESCENT SOFTWARE. TABLE OF CONTENTS Copyright Notice Disclaimer Acknowledgements Shipping Diskettes Shipping Data Memory and Hardware Requirements Master Diskette Backup Using the SETUP Program File Structure and Subdirectories Summary Section The Main Menu The Files Menu The Help Menu The State Menu The Games Menu The Statistics Menu The Charts Menu The Bet Menu The Filters Menu The Print Menu The Utility Menu Program Flow Detail Section Adding New History Using Wheels Importing Wheels LOT-O-WIN limitations THE SHIPPING DISKETTES LOT-O-WIN is shipped on just 1 diskette for either 3.5" or 5.25" media. The 5.25" diskette is shipped as 1.2 Meg HD (high density). The 3.5" diskette is shipped as 1.44 Meg HD. All of the raw data for LOT-O-WIN such as drawing history, payoffs, and system files come in "compressed" format. The installation procedure "un-compresses" these files into a readable (ASCII - text) format. If the user has downloaded the shareware version, the data will also be in an encrypted format. THE SHIPPING DATA All the lotto number history is kept up to date through the newspaper USA TODAY or a 900 number - 1-900-555-5555 ext 33. However the payoff data is not kept up-to-date and is entered as it comes in from the different states. Data for the Canadian games are kept up by calling the data line for the Canadian numbers at MEMORY and HARDWARE The LOT-O-WIN program will run on any of the IBM or IBM compatible personal computers with the following INTEL microprocessor level - 286/386/486. Although LOT-O-WIN will run on an AT (286 12 Mhz) machine, it will bog down unless a graphics accelerator board is used for quickly painting and re-freshing WINDOWS screens. LOT-O-WIN requires at least 1 Meg of RAM to run WINDOWS 3.0 or higher with the associated Visual Basic DLL's. I strongly suggest at least 2 MEGS of RAM to run LOT-O-WIN well. The program does display a lot of charts in color, so it is not recommended that a monochrome monitor be used, but instead use an EGA or VGA monitor. The WINDOWS version must be 3.0 or higher and the DOS Version must also be 3.0 or higher. LOT-O-WIN can respond to either a MOUSE or KEYBOARD input. USING THE SETUP PROGRAM Installing LOT-O-WIN involves typing the following commands: Pre-Installation Step A) - Do this step ONLY if you have unarchived LOTOWIN.ZIP from ANY BBS other than COMPUSERVE. You will be required to have MICROSOFT'S VISUAL BASIC DLL (VBRUN100.DLL). You will have to copy VBRUN100.DLL as VBRUN100.DL_ to the subdirectory that you unarchived LOTOWIN.LZH. Step 1) A:SETUP - type this from the WINDOWS PROGRAM MANAGER "RUN" LINE. If installing from floppy drive "B" - enter B:SETUP. If installing from a hard drive enter the subdirectory and SETUP such as: C:\LINSTALL\SETUP. This will take about 3 minutes and ask you what drive you want to place your LOTOWIN subdirectory on. This will require about 1.2 Megs on your hard drive. Step 2) A:SETUP2 - type this from the WINDOWS PROGRAM MANAGER "RUN" LINE. If installing from floppy drive "B" - enter B:SETUP2. If installing from a hard drive enter the subdirectory and SETUP such as: C:\LINSTALL\SETUP2. This program is a DOS based program and will take about 2 minutes to run. FILE STRUCTURE AND SUBDIRECTORIES LOT-O-WIN has 6 different subdirectories that it uses under its main LOTOWIN subdirectory. They are: 1) DRAWDATA - this subdirectory contains all drawing data for all games. The names of the drawing games are in the form of a 2 digit state id (such as "FL" for Florida) plus a period plus the number of balls drawn followed by the number of balls used in that game. Thus Florida's lotto that has 6 numbers drawn out of 49 numbers has the form: FL.649 2) PAYOFFS - this subdirectory contains the payoff history that has been sent by the different state lotteries to JMH SOFTWARE INC and entered as it arrives. The payoff files are in the form of the 2 digit state id plus the literal "PAY" plus the number of balls drawn followed by the number of ball used. Thus the payoffs for the Florida 6/49 lotto are contained in a file with the name: FLPAY.649. The internal format for this file is the date in the format MMDDYY followed by the delimiter "," followed by 3 digits if a type 6 game (LOTTO) or followed by 4 digits if a type 5 game (FANTASY 5, PLAY 5, CASH 5). For type 6 games, the 3 digits means ( $ millions), while for type 5 games the 4 digits means ( $ dollars ). Finally the last field is the number of winners that shared the prize for that drawing. Notice in this manual I mention that there was no screen to enter this data on yet - if you want to maintain the payoff data, you will have to edit the payoff files using your own text editor. 3) TEXT - this subdirectory contains text files that are shown in list boxes through out the system, and help files that can be activated on data entry screens. 4) WHEELNUM - These files are the permutation data for the wheels used in LOT-O-WIN. You will notice that all the wheel data is alphabetic. LOT-O-WIN can only handle up to 26 different numbers wheeled - which is big enough for most purposes. LOT-O-WIN builds your output wheel files by substituting the order of the numbers you have wheeled by the NUMBERS 1 thru 9, then 0, followed by the letters A thru M. Thus the number "1" becomes the first number wheeled, "2" the second number wheeled, etc. "0" becomes the 10th number wheeled. The letter "A" becomes the 11th number wheeled, the letter "B" becomes the 12th number wheeled, etc. 5) FILES - This subdirectory contains all the wheel files and random number files used in LOT-O-WIN. 6) SYSTEM - This subdirectory contains system wide files and defaults. The files under this subdirectory are the following: A) DEFAULTS - this file contains the file designation of your default state and game - this is set by the CONFIGURATION screen on the UTILITY menu. This file either has the data "XX.XXX" if no default was setup or has your 2 digit state followed by the 3 digit game type - such as "FL.649". What's nice about this is, you can set this to your favorite game and LOT-O-WIN when it loads, will automatically load the data for this game and display the title when the main menu first comes up. B) STATES - this file has the list of states and countries that currently have lotto games. C) GAMES - This is the complete list of games for all state that run lotteries. This list of course does not include daily games, but only LOTTO games where 5 or 6 numbers are drawn. This file is modified on the UTILITY menu by entry #2 (Change a game) and by entry #3 (Add a game). D) WHEELS - This file contains the entire wheeling system and all of this data is show on the WHEEL list box under the BET menu. The format for this file is important if you intend to "IMPORT" your favorite wheel or any other wheel not in the system. FIELD NAME FILE POSITION COMMENT ---------- -------------- ---------------- Wheel number POS 1-3 Any 3 digit number Numbers wheeled POS 5-6 How many numbers are played Tickets played POS 8-10 The # of tickets produced Wheel type POS 12 "F" = Full "A" = Abbreviated "P" = Power (1 key number) Maximum prize POS 13 The top prize guaranteed Guarantee "6" = grand prize guarantee "5" = second prize guaranteed Number Correct POS 15 The number of correct ball you Needed must have to satisfy guarantee E) FILEDIR - this file contains all files that were created by using either wheels or random number generators. SUMMARY SECTION I. THE MAIN MENU The Main Menu is a horizontal band of options across the top that allow the user the tools to analyze, update, print and create lottery files and data. The main menu consists of 10 sub menus that have the following names and functions: 1) FILES menu - file viewing, deleting one file, deleting all files and program exit. 2) HELP menu - strategies, references, what-if, glossary of terms, future changes and general thought provoking help on lottery playing. 3) STATE menu - select a state or country. 4) GAMES menu - select a game. 5) STATISTICS menu - view statistics, actual data charts. 6) CHARTS menu - view odds, theoretical data charts. 7) BET menu - bet using wheels, random numbers, or random with filters. 8) FILTERS menu - use basic or advanced filters to eliminate certain sets of random numbers. 9) PRINT menu - produces 5 reports that show data on history, payoffs, files (wheels/random numbers) and detail history statistics. 10) UTILITY menu - checking winners, setting defaults, changing game data, updating history, setting colors, setting printer defaults. The main menu also consists of an ENVIRONMENT area that has the following displayed items: 1) DOS version - your current DOS version displays at the lower left. 2) WIN version - your current WINDOWS version displays below the DOS version at the lower left. 3) WINDOWS resources remaining - percentage. This has the title "Free Sys %" and displays at the lower right. 4) TIME of day - this displays below the remaining WINDOWS resources at the bottom right. 5) NUM LOCK/CAPS LOCK - these push buttons display at the upper right - when they are clicked (using the mouse only) they light up and indicate the status of these 2 keys. II. THE FILES MENU This menu has only 4 items but they are very important. 1) View all files 2) Delete one file 3) Clear all files 4) Exit - This exits LOT-O-WIN III. THE HELP MENU This menu has many sub menus under it - some to a level of 3 deep. The sub menus are as follows: 1) Disclaimer 2) What is Lotto ? 3) Glossary of terms 4) Strategies A) Overview B) What If C) Good Set Rules D) By size of Pool a) Small b) Medium c) Large d) Massive E) Ten Commandments 5) References A) Books - Primary B) Books - Secondary C) Address/ Phone # 6) Future Changes IV. THE STATE MENU This menu activates a list box which has the name of 34 states plus LOTTO AMERICA (14 states - old), POWERBALL, North New England (3 states), plus CANADA and PUERTO RICO. The Canadian games included are CANADA (the Canadian 6/49) and BRITISH COLUMBIA (the BC 6/49 game). V. THE GAMES MENU This menu activates a list box which has all the names of all games played for this state (past or present). The "STATUS" field shows which games are discontinued (OLD) and which are still being played (CURRENT). The games list box mentions which games have BONUS picks, which have PAYOFF data, and which have BALLSET data. VI. THE STATISTICS MENU This menu has the following items: 1) History - in date sequence 2) Payoffs A) Date sequence Dollar amount is in millions if 6 numbers picked Dollar amount is in thousands if 5 numbers picked B) By average dollar payoff This histogram or bar chart shows payoffs in thousands or millions based on the average payoff - grand prize divided by the number of winners. 3) Frequency 4) Hits/Miss - Red numbers are "Strong" numbers Blue numbers are "Weak" numbers 5) Evens/Odds 6) Front Digits 7) End Digits 8) Overdue # 9) Pairs 10) Triples 11) Sums 12) Consecutive Digits 13) Different Digits 14) Spreads 15) Minimum Gaps 16) Maximum Gaps 17) Frequency by Ballset (or Bucket) - for the 5 states where this information is available: ARIZONA, FLORIDA, MARYLAND, VIRGINIA, and WASHINGTON. All of these charts are calculated using the actual data for that games. VII. THE CHARTS MENU This menu has the following items: 1) Combinations 2) Sums 3) Even/Odds 4) Minimum Gaps 5) Maximum Gaps 6) Spreads 7) First Number 8) Last Number 9) Different Digits 10) Consecutive Digits All of these charts are presented using theoretical data as if every combination that could possibly be drawn had come up. VIII. THE BET MENU This menu has 2 parts - Wheels and random numbers. See the explanation below of these 2 systems. IX. THE FILTER MENU This menu has 2 parts - basic filters and advanced filters. The basic filter consists of the following check boxes: 1) Eliminate high first number or low last number 2) Eliminate low sums or high sums 3) Eliminate minimum gap > 3 4) Eliminate large gaps 5) Eliminate low spreads 6) Eliminate all evens or all odds 7) Eliminate sums the same as last draw 8) Eliminate sum of the multiplication of the digits if same as last draw All of these check boxes are activated by clicking on the check box - when the 'x' appears the check box is activated and filtering on that category takes place. The ADVANCED filter screen consists of a number of data entry text boxes. Some of these text boxes may already be filled in if the user has been to the BASIC filter screen and activated any check boxes on that screen. The following text boxes show on the ADVANCED filter screen: 1) Low first number 2) High first number 3) Sums range low 4) Sums range high 5) Largest minimum gap 6) Maximum numbers in up to 6 categories (0-9, 10-19, etc) 7) Minimum numbers in up to 6 categories (0-9, 10-19, etc) 8) The total numbers that can repeat from the last draw 9) Range of odds/evens 10) Maximum gap 11) Minimum spread X. THE PRINT MENU This menu allows the printing of the following items: 1) Print History 2) Print Payoffs 3) Print Wheels, Data File 4) Print Detail Statistics XI. THE UTILITY MENU This menu has the following items: 1) Check tickets for wins 2) Change a game 3) Add new game 4) Add new history 5) Change configuration 6) Set background colors 7) Set printer default PROGRAM FLOW: Although the WINDOWS environment allows the user to take the route of "ALL ROADS LEAD EVERYWHERE" - the user should proceed through the games in the following order or flow: The flow in LOT-O-WIN is from LEFT to RIGHT. You must first select a state by scrolling thru the states list box, and then selecting the state by either "double clicking" if using a mouse, or pressing "enter" if using the keyboard. The user must then pick a game by choosing the appropriate game from the "games" list box - remember "double click" if using a mouse or press "enter" if using the keyboard. At this point, and proceeding left to right again, the user can then view statistics and charts and determine the top numbers by viewing the "frequency" chart or "hit/miss" charts or any of about 12 different graphs provided to illustrate your games data. Finally the user can begin to create files by using the "wheel" method or the random number generator. DETAIL SECTION This section describes in more detail some of the most important screens in the LOT-O-WIN system. I) THE VIEW FILES SCREEN The View Files list box contains a list of the files that were created under the BETS menu - either as Wheels or Random Numbers. The format of the list box is as follows: 1) File # - the 3 digit number that is entered on the Wheels or Random Number Screen. 2) Game - The number of balls picked and the number of balls that are used. Example: 6/49 means 6 balls were picked out of 49 balls. 3) Type - There are 3 types of files: A) Wheel B) Random C) RND FILT - Random Filtered 4) Date - the date the file was created. 5) Description - Your comment concerning this file entered in the Wheel or Random number screens. II) Delete one file - after the list box appears showing which files are present - simply click on the file you want to delete. The list box will then reappear, and all the rest of the entries will scroll up. III) THE CLEAR FILES MENU - by clicking on this menu entry, and answering "Y" to the "do you wish to delete" question, the system will clear out all the wheel files, and random number files that you have built, as well as the directory to these files. IV) The ENTER WINNING NUMBERS screen - This screen will display the following lines after you enter this week's 5 or 6 winning numbers. Remember this screen will only check files of the same type - that is if you entered 6 winning numbers - it will only check files that have 6 numbers in the set. FILE # - The 3 digit number that you entered when the wheel or random number file was created. TOTAL SETS - the number of sets created in that file 6 - the number of sets with 6 numbers correct. 5 - the number of sets with 5 numbers correct. 4 - the number of sets with 4 numbers correct. 3 - the number of sets with 3 numbers correct. ADDING NEW HISTORY All users of LOT-O-WIN from time to time, will need to add new history as new drawings take place. To do this go to the UTILITY menu and press the ADD NEW HISTORY selection. The new history screen will appear and the last four (4) drawings will show at the top, with the day of the week they were drawn. The first text box has the following options: A - ADD new history I - INSERT new history U - UPDATE previous history D - DELETE previous history E - EXIT this screen UP ARROW or PAGE UP - View history going backwards DOWN ARROW or PAGE DOWN - View history going forwards If the options of "I" or "U" or "D", the program will take you to the text box to the right of the option box. Here you will have to enter the 3 digit index that appears to the left of the drawing history at the top of the page. If the option of "A" is chosen the program will jump to the date data entry text box. Here you should enter the last drawing date in the format of MMDDYY. Next enter the drawing numbers without ANY SPACES OR DASHES. This is important - the drawing numbers must be entered as one continuous string of numbers. Example: If the last drawing had the numbers 01, 08, 10, 20, 25, and 27 - enter these as 010810202527. Now to accept this data entry, go to the "OK" control box and either press enter or "click" on it. This will update the file "in memory" and clear the data entry area for more input. When you are finished, please press the SAVE control box - you must "save" your work before leaving this screen. For those games where there is a BONUS number or POWERBALL number, these numbers should be entered at the end of the regular numbers. Example above, if you were entering the bonus number 15 for the NEW YORK LOTTO 6/54, you would enter 01081020252715 notice that the bonus number 15 is entered at the END of the entire set. Use this same approach for the POWERBALL game - enter 5 numbers immediately followed by the POWERBALL number. USING WHEELS The subject of wheels is almost too deep to go into in a short manual. Suffice to say - this subject is covered in depth by the well known lottery authors such as GAIL HOWARD, ROBERT SEROTIC, and GARY OLANDER. The main idea behind a wheel is that a good wheel gives a minimum prize guarantee. Wheels thus should give you numerous 2nd and 3rd place prizes if the jackpot (grand prize) is trapped in your small group of wheeled numbers. The technique of using "wheels" is different from using random number generators in that: 1) Wheels use a limited range of numbers - usually 20 or less. This technique usually produces an "all or nothing" type of payoff. You either "hit" really big, or get very little, or nothing at all. This ability to "zero in" or "home in" on a select group of numbers, leads to the success of wheels in many drawings. 2) Wheels avoid the "scatter shot" method of picking numbers all over the range of balls, which would be the case with random numbers generator, or even with random numbers that are "filtered". A good lottery wheel though should be "balanced" - that is, most of the numbers should not be all high or all low. An unbalanced wheel could lead to a situation where too many combinations have all low numbers - this "unbalance" leads to payoffs where not only was the grand prize missed, but all 2nd and 3rd place prizes were missed as well. USING WHEELS IN LOT-O-WIN To use wheels in LOT-O-WIN you must first click on the "USE WHEELS" menu under the BETS main menu. A list box will then appear showing the wheels that are available - namely the following: 1) FULL wheels - prefixed by an "F". This method picks EVERY combination of the numbers wheeled. If all 6 numbers fall in your numbers wheeled, the grand prize is guaranteed. You might note how rapidly the numbers of sets mount up just for a small group of numbers - such as a 10 number full wheel. 2) ABBREVIATED wheels - prefixed by a "B". This method does a "best effort" to give the person more secondary prizes, but does not guarantee the grand prize. The advantage with abbreviated wheels is that more numbers can be wheeled with a small amount of money than FULL wheels, but the grand prize is NOT guaranteed. 3) KEY number wheels - this method uses 1 number ( a key number) in every set to be wheeled. After clicking on the entry of the wheel you want to use, another screen will appear asking for the following: 1) Do you want to use your own numbers (Y or N) ? If you answer "Y" (Yes) here, the cursor will jump to the first data entry box. Each box should be filled with the numbers you want to wheel. You must fill in every box - also the numbers do NOT have to be in ascending sequence. If you answer "N" (No) here, the program will calculate the top numbers (by frequency) for your game and insert those numbers in the boxes below - and then use these numbers in the wheel you have chosen. 2) Enter the output file # - enter a 3 digit number 3) Enter the wheel description - enter a comment or description about this wheel. USING FILTERS IN LOT-O-WIN Filters have the advantage of selecting or cutting down the number of possible sets to be played based on rules or educated guessing that the player has for that drawing. Filters are useful if trends have been noted for any statistic. You can filter random sets based on many parameters - here are just a few examples of filters that can be used. 1) The first (lowest) number or the range of the lowest number. 2) How many numbers should fall in a category should as the teens (13 - 19), the twenties, the thirties, etc. 3) The sums of the numbers. 4) How many numbers that can repeat from the last drawing To use filters in LOT-O-WIN you must first click on either the BASIC or ADVANCED sub-menu under the FILTERS main menu. Note: FILTERS are only good for the SESSION of LOT-O-WIN that you are currently in. FILTER parameters can NOT be saved - and thus you must re-enter the filter parameters, every time you come back into LOT-O-WIN. Filters are tied only to the RANDOM NUMBERS part of the BETS menu. You can only filter random sets of numbers, but you can not filter wheels. BASIC FILTERS - these filters are all check box type entries - you have to click on these boxes (or X) these boxes to invoke that filter. ADVANCED FILTERS - Here the operator has to enter the numbers to be used for each type of filter parameter. IMPORTING WHEELS There is no screen in LOT-O-WIN at the present time to enter the parameters for any wheel not in the system. To import your favorite wheel, see the section describing the WHEEL file structure, in the FILES AND SUBDIRECTORIES section. LOT-O-WIN limitations 1) Maximum number of files - 999. 2) Maximum numbers that can be wheeled - 26. 3) The payoffs can not be entered thru LOT-O-WIN at the present but can be maintained through a text editor (see format above). If you desire an update of all the states history and payoffs you can do this at any time for $5.00 plus shipping - express desired media (5.24" or 3.5"). 4) Maximum number of games system wide - 100. 5) Maximum number of entries for history file - 1000. This equals 20 years for once a week games - 10 years for twice a week games and almost 3 years for daily lotto games such as (WISCONSIN - SUPER CASH) or (DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA - QUICK CASH) or (MISSOURI - SUPER CASH).