Estimating the frequency distribution of the numbers bet on the California lottery

摘要

Several schemes are proposed to estimate the relative frequencies of the individual numbers bet on the (California) lottery. The hypothesis that the small numbers are bet more frequently than the large ones is tested and evidence supporting the hypothesis is presented. A computation is proposed which would take 6.6 months; instead an approximation to the function involved is used, reducing the computation to 0.2 seconds. A favorable (but impractical) strategy for betting on the lottery is proposed.