Number 18

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

11times drawn · chance expected 14 −0.92σ

0draws waiting — it came up last time

12.8average wait between appearances · chance says 9.8

29longest completed wait · 40% chance of one at least that long

18 is drawn as often as chance explains

Drawn 11 times in 140 draws against 14.3 expected, −0.92σ. Each draw is independent: after 0 draws away it is exactly as likely tonight as a number drawn yesterday.

Number 18, draw by draw

Drawn 11 times in 140 draws · average wait 12.8 draws · longest completed wait 29 · drawn in the most recent draw

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 18 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 smallest1 · chance 1.8
2nd smallest4 · chance 4.3
3rd smallest6 · chance 3.6
4th smallest0 · chance 1.2
5th smallest0 · chance 0.1

Every position’s lane →

The company it keeps

Seen most often with these — chance gives every partner about 0.9 shared draws, and the leaders are simply the ones that came out ahead this time.

19 27 40 45 3 15

Never drawn alongside 18 of the other 48 numbers; chance expects about 19 such strangers by now. Every pair →

How many people play it

Under the crowd model, 18 is picked about 1.22× as often as an indifferent choice — 15th 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 model and its sources → · What people believe about 18 →

Every draw it appeared in

Date	Wait	Position	The draw
2026-10-12	3	3rd	15 17 18 31 45
2026-10-09	6	2nd	8 18 19 41 43
2026-10-03	25	3rd	3 17 18 27 29
2026-09-08	12	1st	18 19

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: 18 is drawn with probability 5/49 tonight whatever it did last week.