Mega Millions Bonus Number

In the last post, Lottery Strategies - Mega Millions and the Bonus Number, we discussed the problem facing many lottery players; What to do about that Bonus number. We all want to improve our chances of winning the lottery jackpot and that annoying little Bonus number is there tormenting us.

So, I analyzed the last 146 Bonus numbers from the Mega Millions lottery using an Excel spreadsheet to see if I could discover something that could help us out. Analyzing the Bonus number is always problematic because, with only one number per drawing, there is very little data to work with. But, I persevered, not really expecting to find very much. But, as lotteries always do to me, I was surprised. In fact, I looking at including a similar bonus number analysis in my next product release. Here’s what I found.

Mega Millions Bonus Number Analysis

My goal was to find how often Bonus numbers repeated themselves. For instance, column 1 shows how often Bonus numbers repeated from the last drawing. The answer, 6 times in 146 drawings. Column 2 shows that Bonus numbers repeated from the last 2 drawings 8 times. Etc. About now, some of you are asking, ‘OK. But, how does this help me?’ Fair question. Here’s how.

Look at column 5. About 10% of the time the Bonus number is a repeat of one of the last 5 Bonus numbers. That means that 90% of the time the Bonus number is not from that list of 5 numbers but from a 41 number list of the remaining pool. Therefore, if we select our Bonus number from this 41 number pool, we will be right 90% of the time. On the average, we will be right in 9 of the next 10 drawings. So, while the odds for correctly picking the Bonus number for everyone else playing the Mega Millions lottery are 1 in 46, our odds are 1 in 41.

Let’s do the same thing for column 10. The odds are around 20%. Therefore, if we play a 1 out of 36 game instead of a 1 out of 46 game, our strategy will be a good one 80% of the time. That’s 4 out of every 5 drawings. Now, some curmudgeon out there is going to say, ‘That’s no big deal’. He is obviously not a professional gambler. Because, what we are doing here is the same thing all professional gamblers are doing,  ‘playing the odds’. Over time, over the long haul, this pays dividends.

Still not convinced? Then, listen to this. In the last Mega Millions drawing a total of 482,143 wagers had the Bonus number correct. We’ll assume they all selected the Bonus number from the 46 number pool. If everyone had played the 1 out of 36 lottery strategy, there was an 80% chance that the total number of wagers with the Bonus number would skyrocket to 616,017! That’s 133,874 more wagers with the winning Bonus number. Even if the players got no other numbers correct, at $2.00 a pop, that’s a payout of $267,748 more than the lottery officials had planned on.

Finally, a Bonus number lottery strategy that works. So, should you play the usual 1 out of 46 game or are you going to switch to the 1/36 game?

Tags: Improve Your Chances, Lottery Strategies, Mega Millions, MM556, Winning the Lottery //