Number 13

In Lightning Lotto under the 5/49 · since May 2026 rules — 140 draws, 5 from 1–49.

16times drawn · chance expected 14 +0.48σ

11draws waiting · a wait this long: 34% for any number

8.2average wait between appearances · chance says 9.8

27longest completed wait · 61% chance of one at least that long

13 is drawn as often as chance explains

Drawn 16 times in 140 draws against 14.3 expected, +0.48σ. Each draw is independent: after 11 draws away it is exactly as likely tonight as a number drawn yesterday.

Number 13, draw by draw

Drawn 16 times in 140 draws · average wait 8.2 draws · longest completed wait 27 · waiting 11 draws now

a completed wait — darker is longer the wait still running — a lower bound, not a finished gap

Where it lands in a sorted draw

Sort a draw and 13 has a favourite seat — chance gives a small number the low positions more often. That is the shape of sorting, not of the machine.

1st smallest3 · chance 4.8
2nd smallest7 · chance 7.0
3rd smallest5 · chance 3.4
4th smallest1 · chance 0.7
5th smallest0 · chance 0.0

Every position’s lane →

The company it keeps

Seen most often with these — chance gives every partner about 1.3 shared draws, and the leaders are simply the ones that came out ahead this time.

2 12 15 16 23 28

Never drawn alongside 12 of the other 48 numbers; chance expects about 13 such strangers by now. Every pair →

How many people play it

Under the crowd model, 13 is picked about 0.92× as often as an indifferent choice — 31st most popular of 49. That changes nothing about whether it comes up, and everything about how many ways a jackpot on it would be shared.

Numbers 1–31 — the birthday zone ×1.22
The number 13, in Western markets ×0.75

The model and its sources → · What people believe about 13 →

Every draw it appeared in

Date	Wait	Position	The draw
2026-10-01	3	2nd	12 13 16 32 44
2026-09-28	6	3rd	7 12 13 23 46
2026-09-22	27	2nd	2 13 24 28 36
2026-08-26	13	4th	3 5

What this cannot tell you

Nothing here predicts the next draw. A number’s history is a record of a fair machine’s past, and the machine keeps none of it: 13 is drawn with probability 5/49 tonight whatever it did last week.