Number 42

In Lightning Lotto under the 5/49 · since May 2026 rules — 139 draws, 5 from 1–49.

11times drawn · chance expected 14 −0.89σ

1draws waiting · a wait this long: >99% for any number

12.1average wait between appearances · chance says 9.8

23longest completed wait · 63% chance of one at least that long

42 is drawn as often as chance explains

Drawn 11 times in 139 draws against 14.2 expected, −0.89σ. Each draw is independent: after 1 draws away it is exactly as likely tonight as a number drawn yesterday.

Number 42, draw by draw

Drawn 11 times in 139 draws · average wait 12.1 draws · longest completed wait 23 · waiting 1 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 42 has a favourite seat — chance gives a large number the high positions more often. That is the shape of sorting, not of the machine.

1st smallest0 · chance 0.0
2nd smallest0 · chance 0.1
3rd smallest2 · chance 1.0
4th smallest1 · chance 4.2
5th smallest8 · chance 5.7

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.

9 2 5 7 10 13

Never drawn alongside 21 of the other 48 numbers; chance expects about 19 such strangers by now. Every pair →

How many people play it

Under the crowd model, 42 is picked about 0.86× as often as an indifferent choice — 33rd 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 above 31 ×0.86

The model and its sources → · What people believe about 42 →

Every draw it appeared in

Date	Wait	Position	The draw
2026-10-10	5	5th	5 9 17 36 42
2026-10-05	9	3rd	9 30 42 43 48
2026-09-26	23	5th	9 11 33 40 42
2026-09-03	17	4th	9 10

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